The Digil Watershed is located in Gozamen Woreda (district), East Gojjam Zone, Amhara Regional State (Fig. 1). Situated at some 308 km northwest of Addis Ababa, the watershed forms part of the northwestern highlands of Ethiopia. The watershed is from amongst the headstreams of the Blue Nile. As studies indicate, 90% of the Blue Nile basin was originally covered with forests (El Swaify 1993); today the forest coverage is insignificant (Mengistu 1997). The basin is remarkably degraded and is following a trend of environmental deterioration (Mengistu 1997). The Digil watershed is part of this degraded and degrading basin, which will be representative of the conditions in large parts of the temperate (locally known as dega) climatic and agroecological belts of the northwestern highlands. Besides, the watershed is part of the highlands that are considered surplus producing regions of the country but presently threatened by resource degradation and impending food insecurity (Gete 2000).
