Conflict-related environmental degradation threatens the success of landscape recovery in some areas in Tigray (Ethiopia)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7755748 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Henrike Schulte To Bühne (0000-0003-1505-264X), Eoghan Darbyshire (0000-0002-5119-7259), Teklehaymanot G Weldemichel (0000-0002-8664-053X), Teklehaymanot Weldemichel, Jan Nyssen (0000-0002-2666-3860), Doug Weir (0000-0002-7438-4612) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Publication date | 2024-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Conservation Ecology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1195-5449 • E-ISSN: 1708-3087 |
| Publisher | Resilience Alliance, Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.5751/es-15138-290320 |
| OpenAlex | W4401809969 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
Armed conflicts can lead to environmental degradation, thereby threatening the basis of people’s livelihoods and well-being. Identifying areas where conflicts drive environmental degradation is important for designing effective recovery strategies, but this is inherently challenging in insecure contexts. We use a case study in Tigray, Ethiopia to illustrate how open-source satellite data can be used to support the identification of woody vegetation loss during armed conflicts in situations where ground-based assessments are difficult or impossible. Areas of potential woody vegetation loss extend across 930 km 2 (approximately 4% of the area occupied by forest and other woody vegetation in Tigray) and appear to be concentrated mostly along major roads; however, vegetation recovery has continued during the war across a significantly larger area (approximately 2600 km 2 ). Spatial patterns of woody vegetation loss appear to be unrelated to drought conditions and large-scale wildfires. Based on these observations and anecdotal evidence of deforestation, we propose that it may be conflict-driven deforestation, caused by increases in fuel wood demands, that are driving the woody vegetation losses in some areas of Tigray. Eventual recovery efforts will have to consider the loss in landscape health during the war in areas where woody vegetation has declined, and include efforts to restore this vegetation to ensure both food security and livelihoods. Open access satellite data, together with ground-based data collection, could inform such post-war restoration efforts by helping identify degraded areas at a regional scale
Agriculture · Biology · Environmental degradation · Environmental planning · Environmental protection · Environmental resource management · Forest degradation · Geography · Land degradation · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management · Environmental Science · French Urban and Social Studies · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology · Ecology
Restoration policies and the ‘travelling model’ of the Great Green Wall in Ethiopia's Tigray region
Geographies of war and violence II
The nature of peace
Identifying key areas of managing landscape use conflicts among ecotourism stakeholders in national parks
Peace in an era of global war(ming)
Land use and land cover changes to the habitat of the endemic geladas in the escarpments of Eastern Tigray, Northern Ethiopia
Land system resilience amidst the ravages of war
| Citations per year | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |