Collective management on communal grazing lands: Its impact on vegetation attributes and soil erosion in the upper Blue Nile basin, northwestern Ethiopia

Collective action, on communal grazing land, has evolved in the highlands of northwestern Ethiopia to mitigate the problems of feed shortage and land degradation due to overgrazing. The exercise is liked by farmers for improving the availability of natural pasture during the long dry season when other feed sources get depleted. However, large portions of the communal grazing lands are still managed under free grazing throughout the year. This study was undertaken in Maynet village in the upper Blue Nile basin, northwestern Ethiopia, to assess the impacts of three different types of grazing land management (GLM) and two slope gradients (