Community understanding of the role of trees in Kampala City, Uganda.

Abstract

Urban trees are increasingly growing in very harsh urban environments due to urbanization. There is a growing recognition that urban trees improve the quality of urban life in many ways, providing both tangible and less tangible benefits to meet local necessities especially for the urban poor. There are few studies that have involved urban trees and still have focused on their social, economic, environment and ecological behaviors leaving a gap of knowledge concerning species diversity, community’s attitude, feelings and understanding of urban trees. Thus, the specific objectives of the study are to; determine the attitude of the people towards sustainable management of urban trees, document the management interventions on the street trees of Kampala city and identify the different urban tree species within Nakasero and Bwaise, Kampala city. Data for the study were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Peoples attitude was measured using a Likert scale using questionnaires disseminated to 60 respondents. About 98% of the respondents were willing to engage in urban tree establishment, maintenance and conservation campaigns. Majority of the surveyed trees had no management interventions. About 37% of the sampled trees were pruned. The sites’ Shannon diversity index, H=1.303036 and Evenness, E=0.395358 indicate a low species diversity. More research is required to understand the reasons for the low urban tree diversity.