Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the impacts of phased–out land restoration programs on vegetation cover in Eastern Tigray, north Ethiopia. Both the Thematic Mapper (TM) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) Landsat imageries at 30 meter by 30 meter spatial resolution was used to examine the land use and land cover conditions of the study area before (2007), during (2010), and after (2017) the phase–out of IWM projects.
Results: The results indicated that there is a clear variation between the treated and untreated watersheds in terms of vegetation cover status. It is confirmed that for treated and successfully recovered watersheds both the bush/shrub land (19.6 ha), and grassland (8.95 ha) have been increased. However, it was decreased by 9.8 and 11.3 ha in two watersheds after the project phased–out.
Conclusions: The soil and water conservation practices of each watershed have been significantly affected after the phased–out of the IWM projects. An increase to in the bush/shrub lands has been observed in all of the study sites (Adikesho, Deberewahabit and Gemad) by 19.6, 8.95 and 18.9 ha’s during the intervention period.