The Ecological and Socio-economic Impacts of Invasive Plant Species: the Ecological Distribution and Socio-economic Impacts of Prosopis Juliflora in Afar Regional State of Ethiopia

Prosopis juliflora has been introduced and naturalized in many countries since the known human population movement. The plant has multipurposes through out the world. It can rehabilitate degraded lands and waste lands and arrest wind erosion and stablize sand dunes in arid and semi-arid regions. The stem of the plant is used as a fuelwood and construction material. Its pod is good source of animal feed. This plant was introduced to Ethiopia about 35 years ago to rehabilitate degraded land and as a shade tree around Afar National Regional State. Now it has invaded many parts of the country. Prosopis juliflora has invaded all land use/land cover of the Afar National Regional State and its invasion became severe in acacia wood lands than the other land uses. The plant has increased its invasion with the rate of 0.081% per year in the study area. This plant is source of income for the poor but has deleterious effect for the nomadic and rich people by killing their animals and invading rangelands.