Characteristics of selected watersheds
The study was conducted in the Gumara watershed specifically on the
selected four sub-watersheds (Figure 4). The watersheds Girbi and
Gena-mechawocha are under the Farta district administrative; Tankua
Gebriel in Fogera and Wanzaye in Dera districts. The altitude of the
selected watersheds ranging from 1800 to 2846 m a.s.l. (Figure 4). These
watersheds cover an area of 581.5 ha for Girbi, 695.5 for
Gena-mechawocha, 627.1 for Tankua Gebriel and 555.2 ha for Wanzaye.
The land use land cover of the four watersheds is shown in figure 5
(Gena-mechawocha (a); Tankua Gebriel (b); Wanzaye (c) and Girbi (d). In
these watersheds the land use is classified as built-ups, forests,
cultivated and grazing land. The built-ups were hard to identify and
were the dispersed rural settlements. The area covered under this land
use category indicated greater in Girbi watershed since the tip of the
watershed includes parts of the Debre Tabor town (about 101 ha) and
followed by Gena-mechawocha (7.4 ha, Figure 5). The area under forest
cover, which includes trees planted around homesteads and there is an
increasing trend over the past years (Halefom et al., 2019). This is
attributable to the afforestation program of the government and planting
eucalyptus trees at the household level. The area covered with forests
in Girbi and Gena-mechawocha were about 277 and 250 ha, respectively
(Table 1). However, in Girbi, almost all are eucalyptus plantations in
the hillslopes and near the homesteads. The reason is due to its
proximity to the urban area (Debre Tabor).
Cultivated land covers the greater percentage of the total watershed
area with 28, 62, 72 and 68 percent in the Girbi, Gena-mechawocha,
Wanzaye and Tankua Gebriel watersheds, respectively (Table 1). This
land-use type increased from time to time due to an increase in
population growth and the land redistribution in the Amhara Regional
State in 1997 that allocated much of the marginal land to landless
farmers. The grazing land area coverage for all the watersheds was
minimum. The maximum grazing land coverage from these watersheds was 79
ha from Tankua Gebriel. Therefore, farmers use crop residues as feed
sources of livestock.
Data collection and
analysis
Data were collected qualitatively through focus group discussions (FGD)
with farmers; field observations and district level experts were
participated (Figure S1). FGD was used to obtain qualitative data from
selected and representative households. The FGD was conducted based on
prepared checklists and semi-structured questionnaires. Four FGDs having
15 members per group were used to conduct the research. A total of 6
women participated in the discussion. During this session, respondents
expressed their opinions, views, feelings, and perspectives. During
field excursions kebele managers and natural resource management (NRM)
experts were included based on their experiences in similar works. The
data collection considers experts working in the watershed where the
administrative boundary of the watershed lies within the four districts
of the south Gondar zone. From these four districts namely Farta,
Fogera, and Dera, experts were included for data collection. In the
south Gondar zone, these districts were relatively food secured areas
where watershed programs were not supported with productive safety net
programs. Whereas, food-insecure districts were sponsored by watershed
development programs based on the labor invested and mandatory for an
individual being registered as food in secured. The research focused to
understand the approach in these districts to identify whether there
exists common interest, external forces and factors, that led to
short-term benefits and long-term sustainability in the watersheds. All
the data were collected and administered by the researchers for a
day-long period at each watershed. The field observation helped
to better understand the various phenomena under investigation. Some of
the observed occurrences were included an overview of the whole area of
the watershed with transect walk at different slope locations, the level
of natural resources degradation, private and communal grazing lands,
water sources, and traditional water diversion ditches. The
primary information was supported with secondary sources of information
through reviewing published and unpublished documents. Thematic analysis
was used to analyze the collected qualitative information. Therefore,
the analysis was built most cohesively. During the discussion,
an action research model was used. For conflicting ideas further
detailed discussion and informal questions were forwarded to validate
them especially from experts from kebele and district officers.