Ketema Bekele, one of the six PhD students in the first phase of the Woody Weeds project, has successfully defended his thesis earlier this year. The title of the PhD dissertation is “Impacts of Prosopis Spp. on Environment and Livelihoods in East Africa: Evidence from Ethiopia and Kenya” and the advisory committee consisted of Prof Jema Haji and Dr Belaineh Legesse of Haramaya University and Dr Urs Schaffner of CABI Switzerland.

The Woody Weeds team is of course excited about the achievement and congratulate Dr Bekele.

Two chapters of the thesis have recently been published in peer-reviewed journals:
Bekele, K., Haji, J., Legesse, B. and Schaffner, U. (2018) “Economic impacts of Prosopis spp. invasions on dryland ecosystem services in Ethiopia and Kenya: Evidence from choice experimental data” J. Arid Env. 158: 9-18
Bekele, K., Haji, J., Legesse, B., Shiferaw, H. and Schaffner, U. (2018) “Impacts of woody invasive alien plant species on rural livelihood: Generalized propensity score evidence from Prosopis spp. invasion in Afar Region in Ethiopia” Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice 8: 28