| dc.description.abstract | In this study, I used the satellite images from Earth Explorer to classify the land cover types within the protected areas of Budongo CFR, Bugungu Game Reserve and Murchison Falls NP for the years 2011 and 2022. The different land cover types that were classified include; Forest, grassland, shrubland, wetland and open water. The major land cover types in the protected areas of Budongo CFR, Bugungu Game Reserve and Murchison Falls NP are grassland and shrubland for both 2011 and 2022. The area of the classified land cover types was then used to determine the amount of carbon that was sequestered by each of the land cover types using the carbon values for each of the land cover types per hectare according to the 2006 IPCC guideline. The carbon values that were used include 310 tonnes d.m. ha-1 for forest, 70 tonnes d.m. ha-1 for shrubland, 6.2 tonnes d.m. ha-1 for grassland and 2.0 tonnes d.m. ha-1 for wetlands (Change & Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2006). In 2011, Forest covered 113,216.2 ha and stored 35,097,028 tonnes of carbon, grassland covered 225,450 ha and stored 1,397,790 tonnes of carbon, shrubland coved 147,756.5 ha and stored 10,342,955.7 tonnes of carbon, wetland covered 12,839.9 ha and stored 25,679.8 tonnes of carbon and open water 4,185.5 ha. In 2022, forest covered 80,246.9 ha and stored 24,876,560.7 tonnes of carbon, grassland 264,555 ha and stored 1,640,242.6 tonnes of carbon, shrubland 150,921.3 ha and stored 10,564,488.9 tonnes of carbon, wetland 3,921.9 ha and stored 7,843.86 tonnes of carbon and open water 6,503.9 ha. The results implied that forest sequestered the highest amount of carbon for both 2011 and 2022 despite the decrease in the amount of carbon sequestered in 2022. This therefore calls for an increased consideration in the below ground carbon since the carbon that was computed was only for above ground carbon stocks. | en_US |
