Remote Sensing of Land, 5(1), 1-13, 2021. K. V. Suryabhagavan et al. 1 Original Research Paper African Civet Habitat Mapping in Illu-Abbabora Zone, Southwest Ethiopia: Geospatial Approach K. V. Suryabhagavan 1 * , Mintesnot Berhanu 2 , Bezawork Afework 3 , Afework Bekele 3 , M. Balakrishnan 3 1. School of Earth Sciences, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 1176, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 2. Department of Land Administration and Surveying, Mettu University, P.O. Box 318, Ethiopia. 3. Department of Zoological Sciences, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 1176, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Abstract The African Civet (Civettictis Civetta Shreber, 1778) is one of the important natural animal resources of Ethiopia. Ethiopia is the major producer of the Civet perineal gland secretion (known as “civet”) used extensively as a base in perfume industry. However, there is no improvement in civet farming processes in rural Ethiopia, and the farmers still live in a poor state. Majority of rural population in Ethiopia is depending on agriculture, and hence land-use changes during the past couple of decades are mostly linked to agricultural development. Present study was undertaken to predict the spatial distribution of land-use and land-cover and habitats of the African Civet here in after referred as civet(s) in Illu-Abbabora Zone, Southwest Ethiopia. Landsat images of three years: 1985, 2000 and 2018 were classified to generate land-use/land-cover maps, locate forests and other land classes. Results of the study revealed that forest and wetland habitats decreased by an estimated 11.12 km 2 /yr -1 and 2.39 km 2 /yr -1 , respectively during the period of 1985-2018. In contrast, the extent of agricultural land, urban area and Gumro tea plantation increased by an estimated 13.36 km 2 /yr -1 , 0.59 km 2 /yr -1 and 0.43 km 2 /yr -1 , respectively. Habitat suitability approach was found to have great potential in predicting potential habitats of the civets through complex non-linear models. Article history Received: 26 September 2020 Revised: 28 October 2020 Accepted: 28 October 2020 Keywords African Civet; Change Detection; GIS; Habitat Suitability; Landsat; Land Use / Land Cover. Editor(s) Suresh Kumar 1 INTRODUCTION Of late, the potential of satellite data in generating valuable information for land-use and land-cover is well recognized (Mundia and Murayama, 2009; Melese et al., 2014; Mukete et al., 2018; Mekasha et al., 2020). Last few decades marked massive changes in land-use and land-cover in forest ecosystems all over the world including Ethiopia (Melakneh et al., 2010; Misrak et al., 2012; Othow et al., 2017; Dinku and Suryabhagavan, 2019). Such changes are attributed to increase in human population, agricultural expansion, and socioeconomic well-being that triggered unsustainable exploitation of natural resources. The level and intensity of use and exploitation of natural resources, especially forests/vegetation and spatial distribution of wildlife animal diversity, in the world have led to significant changes in the environment and degradation of resources with serious consequences such as reduction of natural resources ecosystem services, and food production. Ethiopia is well known for civiculture with a very long history of production of the civet perineal gland secretion (Civet) which is extensively used in perfume industry besides in traditional practices of the locals. Initially, Civet farming tradition had originated in the northern part of Ethiopia. Later it was introduced in the southwest (Jimma area), and from there the practice spread to other parts of the country. At present, southwestern regions of Oromia, namely, Jimma, Illu- Abbabora and Wollega are the strongholds of Civet * Author address for correspondence School of Earth Sciences, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 1176, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Tel.: +251 911998588 Emails: drsuryabhagavan@gmail.com (K. V. Suryabhagavan -Corresponding author); minteb11@gmail.com (M. Berhanu); bezawork.afework@aau.edu.et (B. Afework), afeworksimegn@gmail.com (A. Bekele), balak212@yaoo.com (M. Balakrishnan). https://doi.org/10.21523/gcj1.2021050101 © 2020 GATHA COGNITION ® All rights reserved.