Understanding changes in soil quality resulting from land use and land management changes is important to design sustainable land management plans or interventions. This study evaluated the influence of land use and land cover (LULC) on key soil quality indicators (SQIs) within a small watershed (Jedeb) in the Blue Nile Basin of Ethiopia. Factor analysis based on principal component analysis (PCA) was used to determine different SQIs.

Over recent decades, Vietnam’s agricultural sector has made enormous progress, realizing major gains in productivity and output and contributing to national goals related to food security, poverty reduction, social stability, and trade. Nevertheless, there are growing concerns related to the quality and sustainability of Vietnam’s agricultural growth and related patterns of development.

The humid tropics are exposed to an unprecedented modernisation of agriculture involving rapid and mixed land-use changes with contrasted environmental impacts. Afforestation is often mentioned as an unambiguous solution for restoring ecosystem services and enhancing biodiversity. One consequence of afforestation is the alteration of streamflow variability which controls habitats, water resources, and flood risks. We demonstrate that afforestation by tree planting or by natural forest regeneration can induce opposite hydrological changes.

This study evaluated the conservation status of tree populations and the impact of illegal logging in the Niassa National Reserve, a huge protected area in northern Mozambique, bordering Tanzania. The Miombo woodland around 8 villages was sampled on 43 transects laid out from log patios showing evidence of felling. Standing trees and stumps of 8 timber species (P. angolensis, A. quanzensis, M. sthulmannii, B. africana, C. imberbe, D. melanoxylon, P. angolensis and S. madagascariensis) were identified, quantified and measured.

To meet growing population demands for food and other agricultural commodities, agricultural land-use intensification and extensification seems to be increasing in the Abbay (Upper Blue Nile) basin in Ethiopia. However, the amount, location and degree of suitability of the basin for agriculture seem not well studied and/or documented. From global data sources, literature review and field investigation, a number of agricultural land suitability evaluation criteria were identified.

In the Ethiopian highlands, church forests have a substantial contribution to landscape restoration, and conservation of endangered indigenous tree species and biodiversity. However, the environmental and economic benefits of church forests are declining due to a combination of economic, environmental, and cultural factors. This study was conducted in Dera district, Ethiopia, to assess the perception of local communities on church forests and investigate the willingness of local communities to pay to manage and protect church forests.

Mozambique's Niassa Reserve contains Africa's best preserved miombo woodlands. Half of the households there gather wild honey from natural hives for consumption and income. However, most collectors used destructive techniques: setting fire to the grasses under the hive tree to create smoke and then felling the tree. Cutting trees to obtain honey was the principal source of tree mortality. Trees grow very slowly, about 0.25 cm diameter at breast hight [dbh] per year, meaning an average hive tree was nearly 200 years old.

Mozambique's Niassa Reserve contains Africa's best preserved miombo woodlands. Half of the households there gather wild honey from natural hives for consumption and income. However, most collectors used destructive techniques: setting fire to the grasses under the hive tree to create smoke and then felling the tree. Cutting trees to obtain honey was the principal source of tree mortality. Trees grow very slowly, about 0.25 cm diameter at breast hight [dbh] per year, meaning an average hive tree was nearly 200 years old.

Ecological restoration through exclosure establishment has become an increasingly important approach to reversing degraded ecosystems in rangelands worldwide. The present study was conducted in northwestern Ethiopia where policy programs are aiming to restore degraded lands. Changes in soil properties following establishing exclosures on communal grazing lands were investigated. A space-for-time substitution approach was used to monitor changes in soil properties after conversion of communal grazing lands to exclosures with ages of establishment ranging from 1 to 7-years.

Planning effective landscape interventions is an important tool to fight against land degradation and requires knowledge on spatial distribution of runoff. The objective of this paper was to test models that predict temporal and spatial distribution of runoff. The selected models were PED-WM, HBV-IHMS and SWAT. We choose 7 km2 Awramba watershed in the Lake Tana basin with detailed hydrological information for testing these models.