2018 Conference

Individual Paper Presentation

In the Northern Highlands of Ethiopia land-use changes have implications that range from availability of food to earning potential to protection of sacred sites and native biodiversity. Across this region most of the remaining native forest cover is found in isolated patches of forest surrounding Ethiopian Orthodox churches. These “church forests” have faced increasing pressure from land-use decisions that support the livelihoods of Ethiopia’s growing population but may degrade the environment. As one striking example, in recent decades the planting of cash crop species including Eucalyptus spp. – which is a valuable source of fuelwood, construction materials, and income for rural Ethiopian households – has become increasingly common in church forest groves, despite concerns surrounding the potential ecological impacts of these non-native trees. The goal of our study is to understand the extent of eucalyptus planting in and directly bordering church forests in the South Gondar Administrative Zone. 

This research combines modern-day high-resolution satellite imagery (drawn from Google Earth and Bing Maps) with geo-referenced 1960s spy-plane imagery (drawn from declassified Cold-War era photos taken by U.S. spy planes flying over then-communist Ethiopia) to identify changes over time in the extent of indigenous church forest vegetation and exotic eucalyptus plantations, along with other changes in land uses within and immediately surrounding (500m) current church forest boundaries. These data allows us to analyze changes in the area of eucalyptus over time, as well as what land-uses present-day eucalyptus plantations have displaced (i.e., native forests, previously cleared land).

This study compliments existing studies on eucalyptus in Ethiopia, while serving as a building block for future studies that can shed light on the factors driving expanded planting. Furthermore, future studies could help inform local decision-making surrounding where further eucalyptus plantations might offer net benefits to surrounding communities, and where agricultural and native forestland might warrant conservation.