Table 1. Identified drivers of LULCC patterns in the study area from 1959–1999 (‘the past’) and from 2000–2018 (‘the present’), and ranking in order of importance.

Rank orders LULCC drivers from the driver perceived to have the greatest influence on LULCC, which is given the first number, to the driver perceived to have the lowest influence on LULCC, which is given the last number. Mentions per rank is the number of times a driver was cited by stakeholders expressed as a percentage.

Driver of past land use change	Rank (1—most important; 13- least important)	Mentions per rank (percent)	Driver of present land use change	Rank (1—most important; 13- least important)	Mentions per rank (percent)
Variable rainfall	1	10%	Human population growth	1	11%
Agricultural expansion	2	13%	Agricultural expansion	2	9%
Availability of minerals (e.g. building material and salt for livestock)	3	8%	Tourism increase	3	2%
Inadequate pasture quantity	3	8%	Urbanization and development	4	9%
Volcanic eruptions	3	5%	Deforestation, overgrazing, land degradation and soil loss	5	15%
Change of culture	6	5%	Growth in mining industries	6	5%
Pre and post-colonial acts and policies	7	36%	High education levels	7	2%
Infrastructure development	8	10%	Poor governance and policy implementation	8	7%
Social-economic development	9	5%	Government policies	9	13%
		100%	Climate change impacts	10	18%
			Culture disappearance	11	4%
			Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes	12	4%
			Biodiversity loss	13	2%
					100%