Socio-economic factors influencing land use and vegetation cover changes in and around Kagoma Forest Reserve Kagera region, Tanzania

Abstract

The Miombo woodland ecosystem has been and continues to face conservation threats. Understanding of changes happening in such ecosystem overtime is important for establishing management baseline data. This study assessed the extent of land use/cover change and the socio-economic drivers of land use and vegetation cover changes in and around Kagoma Forest Reserve north western Tanzania. Remote sensing and GIS techniques were used to analyze land use and vegetation cover changes over the past 23 years. Landsat imagery of 1988, 1999 and 2010 were used in this study. Household survey, field observations and focus group discussions were used to obtain socioeconomic data that influence land use and vegetation cover changes and logistic regression model was used to establish the relationship between socioeconomic drivers and land degradation/vegetation cover change. It was revealed that there has been significant land use and vegetation cover transformation from one class to another. In the period of 12 years (1988-1999) woodlands increased by 5.8%, cultivated land increased by 5.9%, settlements increased by 0.52%, grassland decreased by 2.7%, bushland decreased by 3.87% and forests decreased by 5.64%. During 1999-2010 period woodland decreased by 22.97%, cultivated land increased by 6.07%, settlements increased by 9.14%, grassland increased by 1.50%, bushland increased by 8.76%, and forest decreased by 2.5%. There has been a substantial change in land use and vegetation cover with resultant land degradation over the Kagoma area where the vegetation cover is decreasing at the rate of 45.0845 ha (0.27%) per year. The perceived drivers for the changes include; overgrazing, demand for forest products (mainly timber, charcoal, firewood and poles), shifting cultivation, agricultural expansion, increasing crop prices and lack of land tenure. Enforcement of different laws and regulations relating to natural resources and land use ii planning to improve land tenure and resource use in villages bordering the forest can substantially reduce the problem of land degradation.