IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/ccsesa/230546.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Wetland Use/Cover Changes and Local Perceptions in Uganda

Author

Listed:
  • Turyahabwe, Nelson
  • Tumusiime, David Mwesigye
  • Kakuru, Willy
  • Barasa, Bernard

Abstract

With increasing population, coupled with land shortage and weather variations, wetlands in Uganda have continued to face degradation due to mainly conversion for agricultural, industrial and settlement purposes. The objective of this study was to determine the spatial and temporal wetland use/cover changes and local perceptions attributed to these changes. The study utilized three sets of ortho-rectified and cloud free Landsat TM/ETM+/MSS temporal images (30 m) of 1986, 2000 and 2011. The classification procedures were carried out using an Integrated Land and Water Information System (ILWIS) software version 3.7. A wetland classification system for Uganda developed by the National Biomass Study, 2003 was adopted to describe the wetland use/cover types. The classified images were validated in a ground truthing exercise using Global Positioning System (GPS) to improve on the classification accuracy. Key informant interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with communities adjacent to the wetlands in each of three of the ten Ugandan agro-ecological zones to determine the underlying drivers of wetland use/cover changes, while household interviews generated information on local perceptions of the changes. Significant changes were mainly observed in wetland use/cover between 1986 and 2011. Major factors responsible for these changes were subsistence farming due to intensification of growing paddy rice in Kyoga plains, an influx of migrants who accessed wetlands for daily subsistence (livestock grazing) in South western farmlands and proximity to urban centres in the Lake Victoria Crescent. In all the sampled agro-ecological zones, increased crop farming in wetlands was due to changing opportunities created by existent large markets for wetland crops. Majority (60%) of the local people perceived wetlands in their proximity to have undergone high degradation within the last 10 years, and to have declined in quantity and quality of vegetation, soil fertility and water levels. There was a noticeable variation across the sampled agro-ecological zones, with the highest proportion of local communities perceiving degradation being in Kyoga plains (76%), followed by Lake Victoria crescent (63%) and South-western farmlands (41%). Locally perceived threats to wetlands were mainly from crop growing that accounted for 33% of the frequency of mentioned threats, collection of wetland resources (30%), and prolonged floods and droughts (12%). This study confirms the importance of economic opportunities from new market outlets and migration in its various forms as key factors in land use change, especially at timescales of a couple of decades.

Suggested Citation

  • Turyahabwe, Nelson & Tumusiime, David Mwesigye & Kakuru, Willy & Barasa, Bernard, 2013. "Wetland Use/Cover Changes and Local Perceptions in Uganda," Sustainable Agriculture Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 2(4).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:ccsesa:230546
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.230546
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/230546/files/p95_95-105_.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.230546?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Angelsen, Arild, 1995. "Shifting cultivation and "deforestation": A study from Indonesia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 23(10), pages 1713-1729, October.
    2. Angelsen, Arild & Kaimowitz, David, 1999. "Rethinking the Causes of Deforestation: Lessons from Economic Models," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 14(1), pages 73-98, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Guoping Zhang & Mwanjalolo J.G. Majaliwa & Jian Xie, 2020. "Leveraging the Landscape," World Bank Publications - Reports 33911, The World Bank Group.
    2. Ruth T. Chepchirchir & Ibrahim Macharia & Alice W. Murage & Charles A. O. Midega & Zeyaur R. Khan, 2017. "Impact assessment of push-pull pest management on incomes, productivity and poverty among smallholder households in Eastern Uganda," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 9(6), pages 1359-1372, December.
    3. Katusiime, Juliet & Schütt, Brigitta & Mutai, Noah, 2023. "The relationship of land tenure, land use and land cover changes in Lake Victoria basin," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Philippe Delacote, 2008. "The Safety-net Use of Non Timber Forest Products," Working Papers - Cahiers du LEF 2008-04, Laboratoire d'Economie Forestiere, AgroParisTech-INRA.
    2. Miyamoto, Motoe, 2020. "Poverty reduction saves forests sustainably: Lessons for deforestation policies," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    3. Miyamoto, Motoe, 2006. "Forest conversion to rubber around Sumatran villages in Indonesia: Comparing the impacts of road construction, transmigration projects and population," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 1-12, November.
    4. Babigumira, Ronnie & Angelsen, Arild & Buis, Maarten & Bauch, Simone & Sunderland, Terry & Wunder, Sven, 2014. "Forest Clearing in Rural Livelihoods: Household-Level Global-Comparative Evidence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(S1), pages 67-79.
    5. Yiridoe, Emmanuel K. & Nanang, David M., 2001. "An Econometric Analysis Of The Causes Of Tropical Deforestation: Ghana," 2001 Annual meeting, August 5-8, Chicago, IL 20750, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    6. San, Vibol & Spoann, Vin & Ly, Dalin & Chheng, Ngov Veng, 2012. "Fuelwood consumption patterns in Chumriey Mountain, Kampong Chhnang Province, Cambodia," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 335-346.
    7. Skutsch, Margaret & Turnhout, Esther, 2020. "REDD+: If communities are the solution, what is the problem?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    8. Coxhead, Ian A. & Jayasuriya, Sisira, 2003. "Trade, Liberalization, Resource Degradation and Industrial Pollution in Developing Countries: An Integrated Analysis," Staff Papers 12691, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    9. Kamal Hussain & Fazlur Rahman & Ihsan Ullah & Zahir Ahmad & Udo Schickhoff, 2022. "Assessing the Impacts of Population Growth and Roads on Forest Cover: A Temporal Approach to Reconstruct the Deforestation Process in District Kurram, Pakistan, since 1972," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-23, May.
    10. Gregory S. Amacher & Erkki Koskela & Markku Ollikainen, 2004. "Deforestation, Production Intensity and Land Use under Insecure Property Rights," CESifo Working Paper Series 1128, CESifo.
    11. Mugido, Worship & Shackleton, Charlie M., 2019. "The contribution of NTFPS to rural livelihoods in different agro-ecological zones of South Africa," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    12. Ajanaku, B.A. & Collins, A.R., 2021. "Economic growth and deforestation in African countries: Is the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis applicable?," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    13. Miyamoto, Motoe & Mohd Parid, Mamat & Noor Aini, Zakaria & Michinaka, Tetsuya, 2014. "Proximate and underlying causes of forest cover change in Peninsular Malaysia," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 18-25.
    14. Wehkamp, Johanna & Aquino, André & Fuss, Sabine & Reed, Erik W., 2015. "Analyzing the perception of deforestation drivers by African policy makers in light of possible REDD+ policy responses," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 7-18.
    15. Damette, Olivier & Delacote, Philippe, 2012. "On the economic factors of deforestation: What can we learn from quantile analysis?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 2427-2434.
    16. Raghavan, Roopali & Shrimali, Gireesh, 2015. "Forest cover increase in India: The role of policy and markets," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 70-76.
    17. Martin Persson, U. & Alpízar, Francisco, 2013. "Conditional Cash Transfers and Payments for Environmental Services—A Conceptual Framework for Explaining and Judging Differences in Outcomes," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 124-137.
    18. Otsuka, Keijiro & Suyanto, S. & Sonobe, Tetsushi & Tomich, Thomas P., 2001. "Evolution of land tenure institutions and development of agroforestry: evidence from customary land areas of Sumatra," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 85-101, June.
    19. Combes Motel, P. & Pirard, R. & Combes, J.-L., 2009. "A methodology to estimate impacts of domestic policies on deforestation: Compensated Successful Efforts for "avoided deforestation" (REDD)," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(3), pages 680-691, January.
    20. Pascale COMBES MOTEL & Jean-Louis COMBES & Catherine ARAUJO BONJEAN & Claudio ARAUJO & Eustaquio J. REIS, 2010. "Does Land Tenure Insecurity Drive Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon?," Working Papers 201013, CERDI.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Land Economics/Use;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:ccsesa:230546. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ccsenet.org/sar .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.