Ethiopia's plantation forests are expanding overtime, offering diverse ecosystem services that support people's welfare. In the Awi Highlands of North-western Ethiopia, Acacia decurrens plantations are the prevalent and rapidly intensifying land use, primarily implemented as an agroforestry system. Although the system provides diverse valuable environmental and socioeconomic services, there is inadequate evidence about its spatiotemporal dynamics, livelihood benefits, and food security impacts. This study, therefore, aimed to investigate the Acacia decurrens-based agroforestry land use dynamics and its implications on rural livelihoods and food security in the Awi Zone highlands of Ethiopia. The study adopted cross sectional and longitudinal surveys, adhering to a sequentially explanatory mixed research approach. Purposive, stratified, and random sampling methods were used to choose districts and kebeles, group households as Acacia-agroforestry users and non-users, and select the sample population, respectively. It employed various data collection methods, including geospatial techniques, survey questionnaires, focused-group discussions, key informant interviews, field observations, and document analysis, to gather data from primary and secondary sources. Acacia forest cover changes from 1993 to 2022 were analyzed using a combination of support vector machine classification techniques and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Descriptive statistics (mean, range, percentages, and standard deviations), inferential statistics (independent sample t-test, paired sample t-test, correlations and binary logistic regression), and qualitative techniques were used for the data analyses. The results show that Acacia forests in Awi zone highlands have undergone substantial spatial and temporal changes between 1993 and 2022. The overall share of Acacia plantation forests was negligible (0.05%) in the base year (1993), but rapid increases were observed in the subsequent years, reaching 5.3% in 2007 and 24.5% in 2022. The expansion of Acacia in the study site is happening mainly at the cost of cropland, grassland, and shrubland. Soil acidity, land degradation, Acacia’s attractive benefits, growing fuel wood demand, pioneer Acacia growers living condition improvement, and Acacia’s friendly nature with other land uses were the top six drivers for the remarkable expansion of Acacia in the area. According to the study, Acacia agroforestry involves rotating crops and Acacia trees on farmland in a 4-5 years gaps. Despite the complex challenges (Acacia pests/diseases, traditional charcoal-making, limited road access and market opportunities, negative human-health impacts, and high production cost), the agroforestry system yields a multitude of benefits, including soil/land quality improvement. The retrospective analysis results revealed the significant positive impacts of Acacia agroforestry land uses on farmers' livelihoods, with substantial increases in the natural, physical, financial, and human capital indices. The aggregate livelihood index also experienced a significant rise from 0.47 (pre-Acacia time) to 0.71 after the implementation of Acacia agroforestry. Regarding food security, only 42.3% surveyed households were food secure. Among the food secured households, 44.9% were users of Acacia agroforestry, while 35.8% were non-users.This visibly reflects the positive contributions of the Acacia agroforestry on rural food security. The logistic regression analysis further revealed that farmers' food security was positively impacted by livestock and farmland size, participation in off-farm activities, irrigation access, plantation experiences, and perceived soil quality. Conversely, age, family size, credit access, and market distance negatively affect food security. The study concluded that the Acacia agroforestry is widely expanding in the study area during the study periods and has numerous livelihood benefits and positive influences on participant farmers’ food security. Generally, sustainable land-use practices, such as agroforestry, have widely recognized environmental and socioeconomic benefits. Therefore, it is essential to expand and strengthen the Acacia agroforestry system by addressing its challenges and enhancing its valuable eco-environmental services. Additionally, it is crucial to implement effective and viable intervention measures to address food insecurity and curtail the extravagant socio-cultural practices of the local community. Key words: Acacia decurrens; agroforestry; Awi highlands; challenges; drivers; livelihoods; Ethiopia; food security; spatiotempora