article · Remote Sensing
In Ethiopia, fertile cultivated lands are increasingly being converted into Eucalyptus plantations. An investigation in the Mecha district combined Landsat satellite imagery spanning from 1991 to 2021 with socioeconomic surveys from 120 randomly selected households to examine this trend. Over the three decades, Eucalyptus coverage rose dramatically from 908.87 hectares in 1991 to 3,719.05 hectares in 2006, reaching 26,261.9 hectares by 2021. Most of this growth occurred directly at the expense of productive cropland. Household survey data reveal that the primary drivers of this transition include expectations of higher household income, low production expenses, and concerns regarding the negative impacts of neighbouring Eucalyptus trees on adjoining crops. The uncontrolled spread of Eucalyptus across productive agricultural areas presents serious land management challenges, highlighting the necessity for coordinated intervention strategies and structured management frameworks to oversee its growth.
Converting agricultural land to Eucalyptus plantations directly affects food crop production and rural livelihoods. Understanding how rapidly this shift occurs and why farmers choose tree planting over conventional farming helps agricultural planners, policymakers, and communities balance timber-related income with regional food security and sustainable soil stewardship.
The abstract does not indicate an application pathway or a commercial product. The findings provide land-use mapping and survey evidence that regional agricultural authorities, land-use planners, and forestry extension services could use to guide zoning policies and intervention strategies, representing early-stage research for resource governance rather than a market-ready tool.
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Converting fertile, cultivated land into Eucalyptus plantations has become a common practice in Ethiopia. Integrating geospatial techniques with socio-economic data analysis can be a useful method to evaluate the expansion of Eucalyptus and its underlying factors. The objective of this study is to detect the spatio-temporal patterns and main factors contributing to Eucalyptus expansion in the Mecha district of Ethiopia. To quantify the spatial extents of Eucalyptus plantations, the study employed Landsat images from 1991 to 2021 with supervised image classification in ERDAS Imagine 2015. In addition, 120 households were chosen using random sampling technique to incorporate socioeconomic factors related to Eucalyptus expansion. The result shows that, Eucalyptus plantations expanded significantly across the study area during the last three decades. Eucalyptus plantation covered 908.87 ha, 3719.05 ha, and 26261.9 ha in 1991, 2006, and 2021, respectively. The increment was mostly at the expense of fertile cultivated land use. The main reasons for its expansion are linked with farmer’s expectations of a better source of income, apprehension about the detrimental effects on nearby cropland, and its affordable production cost. In conclusion, the study area faces challenges from the uncontrolled expansion of Eucalyptus plantations on productive lands. Therefore, careful management and intervention strategies should be established to manage its rapid expansion.
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DOI: 10.3390/rs15030661
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