Effective management of natural resources, especially National Parks requires accuraternand up-to-date information to guide park managers in making appropriate decision. Thernintension of this study is to provide such information using GIS and remote sensingrntechnologies to guide policy development in managing protected areas in BalernMountains National Park. By utilizing remote sensing technologies and implementingrnGIS mapping techniques, land use and land cover change of designated areas can bernmonitored and mapped for specific research and analysis. The present study wasrnattempted to identify and quantify the major land use land cover changes over the pastrn33 years as well as to identify potential habitat for Mountain Nyala (one of wild lifernspecies) at BMNP. Three satellite imageries (Landsat MSS 1973, Landsat ETM+ 2000rnand ASTER 2005) have been utilized for the change detection analysis. As a result,rnland use land cover map of 1973, 2000 and 2005 was generated. In this study postrnclassification and image differencing methods of change detection were assessed and arnsuitable method among them was found to be the former one because of the merit that itrnprovides to and from information and results in a base map that can be used for thernsubsequent year. More over, it identifies where and how much change has occurred.rnEventually, Eight land cover classes were identified from supervised classification ofrnboth ASTER, 2005 and Landsat ETM+, 2000 images, namely, moist montane forest,rndry ever green forest , wood land , alpine bush land , water body, , pasture and farmrnplot, barren land and mixed grass/cereals.Five factor layers (vegetation type, elevation,rnsettlement, river and road) were employed for Nyala habitat suitability modeling, andrnfour suitability classes (most suitable, suitable, moderately suitable and less suitablernhabitat) were identified after performing GIS overlay analysis. The majority of mostrnsuitable habitat lies around the northern part of the park and on the top of the harrenarnforest. Woodland vegetation type along with the elevation range between 2800-3200rnm.a.s.l found to be the most suitable habitat for Mountain Nyala. In general, five majorrncauses of land use/land cover changes were identified (haphazardly expanding ofrnsettlement, Exploitation of wood for fuel and construction materials, human inducedrnfire, luck of legislation & law enforcement and uncontrolled grazing & increasingrnfarming on higher elevation).rnKey Words: Land cover/ land use, habitat, GIS, suitability, RS, BMNP