Review Article Open Access

Impact of Land Use/Land Cover Change on Rural Communities Livelihood of Ethiopia

Abstract

Land use/land cover is dynamic in nature and it provides a comprehensive understanding of the interaction and relationship of anthropogenic activities with the environment. Changes in the condition and composition of land use/land cover affect climate, bio-geo-chemical cycles and energy fluxes and livelihoods of people. More recently, tropical deforestation has drawn attention to human impacts on the environment. The loss of tropical rainforests in the Amazon basin, and the associated loss of biodiversity and accelerated extinction of species have captured the global imagination. Ethiopia, situated in the horn of Africa, has a long history of intensive agriculture and human settlement particularly in the highlands due to the presence of favorable climatic and ecological conditions. However, the high population pressure and the concomitant depletion of the scarce resources have made agriculture of the country unsustainable, forcing its expansion into marginal areas such as steep slopes, swampy plains, and traditionally untapped part of the environment and putting tremendous pressure on soil, vegetation and water resources. As a consequence, considerable land use/land cover changes have occurred in Ethiopia during the second half of the 20th century which has an adverse impact on the communities’ livelihood. The major impact of LULCC on rural livelihood that identified by many studies include: its impacts on environment thereby rural communities’ vulnerability to climate vagaries; its impact on land resources with related to land degradation, soil erosion, and productivity decrement; its impact on biomass energy Supply; Vulnerability of rural communities towards erratic rain fall and water sources problem with related to LULCC; impact on access to quality water; its negative impact on livestock rearing which related with grazing land shrinkage for agricultural land expansion, and also its impacts on ecosystem goods and services especially related with deforestation

Belay Haile Gessese

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