Compliance to environmental laws in the use and management of Lutembe wetland in Ddewe village Wakiso district, Central Uganda

Abstract

This study explores compliance to environmental laws in the use and management of Lutembe wetland. The objectives were to: (i) assess the level of compliance to environmental laws in the management of Lutembe wetland, (ii) determine the factors limiting compliance to environmental laws in the use and management of Lutembe wetland and (iii) determine measures that can be undertaken to improve on the compliance to the environmental laws relevant to wetland. Simple random sampling was employed in selecting respondents from the village and a sample of 80 households was selected. Primary data from the field survey was collected through questionnaires, observation and interviews with respondents in order to attain information about the topic. Data was analyzed using a statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS). Descriptive statistics was used to summarize demographic data, people’s level of awareness about the environmental laws, knowledge about the environmental laws, factors are limiting enforcement of environmental laws and measures that can be undertaken to improve on the compliance to the environmental laws relevant to wetlands. Chi-square tests were applied to compare the perceptions that exist among the people on compliance to environmental laws and the extent to which the views of the local people on factors limiting enforcement of environmental laws in the use and management of Lutembe wetland among the different social categories. Results have shown that 88.2% of the people were aware of the National Environment Act. Fishermen and farmers were most compliant while the brick-layers were most non-compliant groups to environmental laws. The respondents perceived benefits from wetland after law enforcement has the most influential factor to compliance. Weak enforcement of laws, corruption, followed by inadequate knowledge about the wetland/laws/user permits were the major factors limiting compliance. 61.2% of the respondents suggested creation of employment opportunities, followed by 50.0% who affirmed strict enforcement of laws by the regulators can be the possible ways to improve environmental compliance, it is recommended that the government should increase on the resources provided to the local government so as improve on their monitoring performance. This will ensure strict enforcement of laws as way of achieving better compliance to wetland laws. Also creation of employment opportunities to reduce on peoples dependency on the wetland.