Assessing the Impacts of Eucalyptus Plantation Expansion on the Farm Land: The Case of Damot Gale Woreda, Wolayta Zone, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Majority of the People in Ethiopia rely on eucalyptus for socioeconomic benefits. As a result, the conversion of farmlands into eucalyptus woodlots has sparked significantly. There has been still a concern on eucalyptus expansion on charge . The study aimed at assessing the impact of eucalyptus plantation expansion on the farm land in the case of Damot Gale woreda, Wolaita zone, southern Ethiopia . Spatial data were collected different years' (1993,2003,2013 and 2023) satellite imageries were used to effectively analyze LULC changes patch to compute the trend of eucalyptus expansion . Around 165 sample points were collected using handheld GPS Garmin 72 to check the image classification accuracy