FOREST COVER CHANGES, AND COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVE ON ITS DRIVING FORCES IN SETEMA DISTRICT JIMMA ZONE, SOUTHWEST ETHIOPIA

Globally, forests are the main components of biodiversity that represent the bases of ecosystems, through the services they give and influence human well-being through supplying services, environmental and ecological regeneration, and cultural service. In the Setema district, there is a problem of forest cover change which result in loss of soil, loss of biodiversity, change of climate, constraints of fuelwood, and constraints of farm equipment. Thus, the general objective of this study was to identify forest cover changes in the setema district and the community perspective on its direct and indirect driving forces. The study was used primary data, secondary data, a two-stage sampling design, and, 384 samples of households to accomplish the objectives of the study. The study used QGIS software, Minitab software, and, Microsoft excel 2010. The result showed that between 1988 and 2018, the forest land and grassland were lost from 62104.4 ha (56.22%) to 43867ha (39.71%), and from 17416.0 ha (15.77%) to 7208ha (6.53%), respectively. Agricultural land and settlement land were increased from 25553.5ha (23.13%) to 484805.5ha (43.89%) and from 1840.33ha (1.58%) to 7562.79ha (6.85%), respectively. The overall accuracy assessments of the 1988, 1998, 2008, and 2018 period findings were 82.6%, 85.5%, 87.6%, and 91.06 %, respectively. Based on downloaded satellite image classification, and qualitative research of KII, FGD, and HHs; forest land cover, grassland cover, bushland cover, and wetland cover were decreased and agricultural land, settlement land, and bare land were increased. According to community perception, the decrease of forest land and the increase of other land use land cover were due to the proximate drivers such as fuelwood extraction, illegal wetland conversion to agricultural land, illegal timber production, agricultural expansion, extraction of wood for house construction and underlying drivers of population growth, corruption, and lack of institutional collaboration.