Abstract: This paper analyzes the impact of urban land-use changes on farmers' livelihood around the city of Bahir Dar (Ethiopia). Rapid urban expansion in and around the city has resulted in massive land-use changes in its urban fringes, with land expropriation programs affecting communities' livelihood and the environment. A survey was conducted in three urbanizing villages near Bahir Dar, focusing on 150 farmers who were land-expropriated and 180 farmers who were non-land-expropriated. Regression models and propensity matching scoring are applied to examine the livelihood differences of farmers in terms of farm income, off-farm income, primary expenditure type, and perception of urban expansion benefits to farmers. The results reveal that land expropriation in the area has led to (a) a shift to off-farm income for land expropriated farmers; (b) an increase in their household expenditure on staple foods compared to other expenditure types, including farm inputs; and (c) diverging perceptions on whether and how city expansion benefits farmers in the neighboring villages. Our findings provide insight into the need for tighter and impactful policy actions to ensure the sustainability of urbanization through accommodating expropriated farmers' livelihood changes and protecting natural resources in the area.

Abstract: Geotourism is a niche form of sustainable tourism that focuses on the geological and geomorphological features of an area, and the associated culture and biodiversity. Geosites are important resources for geotourism development. The eastern and southeastern Lake Tana region in Ethiopia has several geosites with a potential for geotourism development. Despite the diversity of potential geosites and the strategic location of the area in the Northern Tourist Circuit of Ethiopia, only a few attractions such as Lake Tana and the Blue Nile Falls are currently being visited. The objective of this paper is twofold: to inventory geosites in the eastern and southeastern Lake Tana region and assess their potential for geotourism development; and to propose a geosite inventory and assessment methodology for geotourism purposes with adaptations from previous studies. Several studies were reviewed and finally nine of them used as the main references to prepare the criteria, indicators, and sub-indicators for this study. The indicators used for assessing the potential of geosites relate to scientific, educational, scenic, recreational, protection, functional, and ecological values. This research presents the first inventory of geosites in the Lake Tana basin. A first list of 120 geosites has been inventoried. Further screening and clustering resulted in 61 geosites, of which 17 are viewpoints. Among the major geosites are waterfalls, a lake with islands and island monasteries, a flood plain, caves and cave churches, lava tubes, a mountain (shield volcano), volcanic plugs, volcanic cones, rock-hewn churches, and viewpoints. Quantitative assessment of the geotouristic potential of these geosites revealed that clustered (complex area) geosites received higher scientific, scenic, and recreational value scores.

Abstract: The 21st century revival of large-scale water resources development projects makes it important to keep assessing their impacts – preferably from an interdisciplinary perspective – in order to not repeat past mistakes and explore whether they could improve livelihood conditions for rural communities. In this study, costs and benefits of the World Bank-funded Ribb Irrigation and Drainage Project (RIDP) were investigated using a unique systems approach. The impact for farmers with different initial farming systems (rainfed – residual moisture – irrigated) was studied using field observations, document analyses, remote sensing, agronomic data and semi-structured interviews (n = 165). Data on project-induced changes to land and water availability, cropping patterns, farming systems and farm-level economics were collected. The results show that dam and dyke construction has reduced flooding, which has resulted in declining rice productivity ( – 42%) and concomitant shifts to lower value cropping systems. Results also reveal that the land redistribution has caused widespread livelihood deterioration as households had to give up 25% of their farmland and the communal grazing land was fully converted into farmland. Due to top-down implementation, nontransparent communication, delayed construction and lagging financial compensation, social resistance has appeared in the command area, impeding the construction works. In addition to these problems, if no rapid change to higher value crops can be realized, 20.5% of the farmers (those who already irrigate) will experience a loss of livelihood, 64.1% of the farmers (those with rainfed and residual moisture cultivation) will be on the verge of livelihood deterioration and only 13.5% of the farmers (those with solely rainfed cultivation) will enjoy RIDP-induced improved livelihoods. The fate of this project stresses the importance of investigating initial farming systems, exploring worthy project alternatives, improving participation, communication and benefit-sharing and strengthening the institutional capacity of implementing authorities.

Abstract: Despite public awareness of unintended impacts (1980s) and well-developed international standards (2000s), downstream impacts of large hydropower projects still very often are not properly assessed. Impacts of (hydropower-regulated) interbasin water transfers (IBWTs) are considered self-evidently positive, although they can have far-reaching consequences for hydrogeomorphological systems and consequently river-dependent communities. In this study, the downstream direct and indirect impacts of the Ethiopian hydropower-regulated Tana-Beles IBWT are evaluated in an interdisciplinary way. The components of the framework of rural livelihoods are considered and changing contexts, resources availabilities and livelihood strategies are analysed. Mixed methods are applied, combining hydrogeomorphological field observations, GIS analyses, scientific literature, policy documents, and semi-structured interviews with local people and local to federal authorities. Results show that the IBWT drastically increased the Beles rivers discharge (with an average release of +92 m3 s−1 at the outlet; *2 in rainy season and *12 in dry season 100 km downstream of the water release) and introduced dangerous situations for local communities (over 250 people drowned in the river). River bank erosion resulted in the uncompensated loss of farmland (163 ha) and the establishment of large-scale commercial farms increased the pressure on land and led to the impoverishment of displaced communities (4310 households). The project was implemented top-down, without any transparency, benefit sharing or compensation for external costs. This stresses the importance of downstream interdisciplinary impact assessments and highlights the need for decent in-depth ex post-analyses of hydropower projects. Environmental impact assessments should be taken seriously and cannot be considered a formality. In Ethiopia and in many developing countries, the hydropower industry is booming. Although dams and IBWTs can be the best solution for water-related problems in specific contexts, national development goals (such as the expansion of the electricity network) should not be at the expense of rural livelihoods.