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Background Land restoration programs in Tigray, also called integrated watershed management (IWM) practices, were implemented by the government and non–governmental organizations since 1980s. These practices aimed at reversing land degradation processes, environmental rehabilitation, and ensure food security at both community and household levels. Most of the implemented IWM projects are now phased–out. The aim of this study is therefore; therefore, to investigate the impacts of phased–out land restoration programs on vegetation cover changes in Eastern Tigray, Ethiopia. Both Thematic Mapper (TM) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) Landsat imageries at 30 meter by 30 meter spatial resolution were used to examine the land use and land cover conditions taking successful and unsuccessful IWM interventions as case studies. Three time periods were used in the change analysis: before IWM implementation (2007), at the time of IWM projects phase-out (2010), and after IWM phase-out (2017). Results The results indicated that for all successful integrated watershed management projects, both the bush/shrub land (19.6 ha) and grassland (8.95 ha) increased during the intervention time for Negash (S-1), Deberewahabit (S-2) and Gemad (S-3) watersheds. However, the bush/shrub land decreased after the integrated watershed management projects phased–out by 9.8 and 11.3 ha for S-1 and S-3 watersheds. At the unsuccessful IWM projects, bush/shrub land increased by 18.21, 11.3 and 9.5 ha during the intervention period, and decreased after project phased–out by 3.92 and 7.2 ha at Debretsion (S-4) and Laelay wukro (S-5) watersheds. Furthermore, cultivated land increased after phased–out in most of the watersheds. Conclusions This study concluded that vegetation cover has been declined in all watersheds after the phased–out period. This may affect significantly the environment in general and livelihood of the community in particular. Therefore, there is a need to provide an emphasis after the implementation of watershed projects and evaluate its impacts regularly.

Impacts of phased–out land restoration programs on vegetation cover change in Eastern Tigray, Ethiopia