Abstract:
Land use cover change has become a central component in current strategies to explore possible
adaptive and mitigation measures for environmental changes. Hence, information
about it is essential for the selection, planning and implementation of land use schemes.
The aim of this study is to detect the magnitude and rate of land use cover change for
the last 30 years from time satellite images of 1989, 1999, 2009 and 2019, and
generating the rate of forest degradation map in the study area. NDVI image comparison and
post-classification change detection methods were employed. The result of multi temporal
imagery has depicted that the study area has undergone a series of land use land cover
change,water body, forest and grass lands had decreased whereas, Agricultural land and
Settlement land increased. In addition to this, driving forces for forest degradation was done by
considering factors such as cultivated land, settlement value include numerical value (%) period
of analysis). And then, levels of participation for forest protection of households of Jimma Geneti
Woreda, about(2.3%), (26.6), (71) are categorized under less, moderately, and highly level of
participation for forest protection respectively. The problem of forest cover change is directly
linked with the activity of man such as expansion of agricultural land, demand of fuel wood and
constructional materials as well as using this resource as income generating means’s. Besides,
due to the problem of forest cover change; land degradation in the form of soil erosion, as well
as declining of biodiversity seems to have reached a critical stage. In order to hold back the
problem of forest cover change and its impact, corrective measures had been suggested which
can be implemented both in the short term and long term-phase.
