Impacts of land use change on livelihoods of Kakooge Subcounty, Nakasongola District Uganda
Abstract
The study investigates the impacts of land use change on livelihoods in Kakooge Sub County, Nakasongola district. It shows how land has dramatically changed over the past decades. Factors such as rapidly growing population, accelerating rate of deforestation and swamp reclamation, expansion of cropland and grazing lands into delicate ecosystems such as wetlands and sand mining were discovered to have caused extensive land use change. Mixed method approach for data collection were used including use of remote sensing data, field surveys and demographic data analysis were used to quantify the extent of change in the different land uses. The results revealed that increasing population, sand mining, agricultural expansion and increasing
demand for wood fuel and charcoal production contributed to most of the land use changes. It was therefore recommended that policies promoting sustainable land management, reforestation program, subsistence agricultural should be carried out on small scale and most of all enforce laws and punishments on swamp degraders, charcoal burners and reduce on the deforestation activities within the area.