The Aftermath of Tigray's Armed Conflict on Forested Ecosystems: Insights from Kafta Shiraro National Park, Northern Ethiopia

Yayo Mengesha, Aksum University (Ethiopia)

War impacts many protected areas of the world, posing a critical crisis to global biodiversity. The ecological, social, and economic process of the community consequently changes. This study examined the war-induced damage that occurred in the state-owned Kafta-Sheraro National Park during and after the war period. We used Sentinel-2 multispectral satellite images from 2020 and 2024 to investigate the impact of war. Certain pre- and post-image classification processes were undertaken in ArcMap. Then, a band combination task comprising RGB and NIR was combined and finally, mosaicking of the three tills was undertaken. Both images were classified separately using Pixel-based supervised image classification, maximum classified, and maximum classified in Arc Map 10.8. Results revealed that significant transformation across the major land covers was observed: between 2020 -2024, woodland cover degraded by 38.33% (44.69 km2). Similarly, the shrubland degradation was also significant, showing a reduction by 54.78% (523.63 km2). Whereas an increase in the area of grassland and cultivated land was observed by 64.14% (444.26 km2) and 42.21% (85.18 km2). The magnitude of the damage is seen at a higher risk, which may eventually require massive restoration efforts to reverse the environmental degradation of the park. Long-term management perspective at the community level, as well as putting policy options, should be taken as an important task for the park management. Keywords: War, LCC, Kafta-Sheraro, Remote-Sensing, Tigray