Abstract
Developing strategies that counter the ongoing homogenization trends of home-garden agroforestry systems is required to maintain diversity and sustainability. This study aimed to map and characterize traditional enset-based home-garden agroforestry for managing sustainability in the Gurage socioecological landscape in Ethiopia. We generated plots and land use land cover (LULC) spatial data from orthophotomosaic and collected household survey data of the field. Five home-garden types were identified explicitly through integrating the home-garden composition, functional structure, and agroecological zones. Most home-garden types had similar horizontal functional structures in which perennial crops were planted close to homesteads, annual crops grew in outer fields, and woodlots were located at the end of the parcel. Diverse woody species, crop varieties, and plot sizes were identified in individual household parcels, and these varied across the home-garden types. Enset-based home-garden agroforestry production has been declining in the Ethiopian landscape because of socioeconomic changes and a lack of technological inputs. These challenges may compromise the community’s food security with loss of the product diversity provided by the home-garden system. Thus, technological adoptions and scaling up of agroforestry practices according to the home-garden types are necessary for the continue provision of multiple contributions. This study demonstrated site-specific spatial characterization of the agroforestry systems by considering a holistic approach to reduce the local challenges and support the development of sustainable landscape management in an altering socioecological landscape.
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The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
This study’s key interviews and FGDs were conducted with the kind cooperation of the Gurage-Zone Tourism and Culture office and Wolkite University in Ethiopia. The authors thank the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for providing financial support to the overseas researchers and the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability and Institute for Global Environmental Strategies in Japan for providing logistic support.
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Financial support was provided by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for overseas researchers. This funding organization supported the design of the study; data collection, analysis, and interpretation; and writing the manuscript.
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Conceptualization, M.S. and O.S.; methodology, M.S.; software, M.S.; validation, M.S. and O.S.; formal analysis, M.S.; investigation, M.S.; resources, O.S.; data curation, M.S.; writing—original draft preparation, M.S.; writing—review and editing, O.S. and S.D.; visualization, M.S.; supervision, O.S.; project administration, O.S.; funding acquisition, O.S. All authors have read and agreed to be published the manuscript.
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Sahle, M., Saito, O. & Demissew, S. Characterization and mapping of enset-based home-garden agroforestry for sustainable landscape management of the Gurage socioecological landscape in Ethiopia. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 24894–24910 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-17605-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-17605-0