The Impact of Soil and Water Conservation on Plant Species Diversity at Kebelle Saesie Woreda Saesie Tsaeda Emba Eastern Zone of Tigray Regional State
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Date
2019-08-08
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Land degradation is one of the major challenges in the development of plant species diversity in
many parts of the world, especially in developing countries like Ethiopia. Even though a number
of Soil and water conservation methods were introduced to contest land degradation, there are
some areas that do not show significant progress. This study was conducted at kebelle Saesie
Woreda Saesie Tsaeda Emba, Eastern zone of Tigray Regional state. The purpose of the study
was to evaluate the impact of SWC on the advancement of plant species diversity. Reasonably, it
was focused on the methods of SWC, plants that grow after SWC implementation and the
variation between conserved and un-conserved areas regarding their plant species diversity. The
data was collected by questionnaire, interview and field observation. To collect reliable
information, a total of 65(41 male and 24 female) households from the kebelle were considered
in the questionnaire administration and another 10(7 male and 3 female) households and one
Kebelle agricultural expert were interviewed. In addition to this, several field visit was carefully
conducted and 100m2 area for each 44 plots were demarcated from slopes and plain lands. Then
different plant species inside them were counted. The data obtained through questionnaire were
computed with frequency and percentage in Microsoft Excel and then discussed in both
quantitative and qualitative approaches. The data gathered via interview and field observation
were also quantitatively & qualitatively analyzed using the descriptive data analysis method. The
result shows that, the common methods of SWC in the study area were dam construction, hillside
terracing, hung dung trenches, Water harvesting, contour plough, afforestation, reforestation
and over grazing control. Due to those techniques plants developed in type, structure and
number. Necessarily, human and animals became beneficiary from the land reclamation. On the
other side, the data indicates the presence of un-conserved and conserved but no protected lands
with their feeble growth of plant species. From this, the study concluded that plant species
diversity cannot enrich unless the area is conserved and protected. Therefore, the careful pursue
of stakeholders on natural resources conservation should be a core issue.
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Keywords
Soil and Water Conservation, Conservation Methods, Plants Species Diversity