Title
Chapter Title: Land use changes (1990-2015) in Kalangala and Buvuma districts, southern Uganda
Book Title: Oil palm plantations in forest landscapes:
impacts, aspirations and ways forward in Uganda.
Author(s)
Nangendo, Grace
Published
2018
Abstract
Trends in land cover change were assessed for the Kalangala landscape, composed of Kalangala and Buvuma districts. Land cover has greatly changed in both districts but the type of change varies between them. In both districts, the dominant land use in 1990 was fully stocked tropical high forest, but by 2015, this had been reduced to less than half in Kalangala district, from 52% to 22%, whereas in Buvuma district high forest had been completely cleared, from 47% to 0% cover. In the same period in Kalangala district, uniform farmland which describes palm oil plantations had increased from 0 to 18%, whereas in Buvuma, subsistence farmland had increased from 8% to 52%. And whereas most of protected areas in Kalangala district had not been cleared of tropical high forest, most land in protected areas in Buvuma district had already been converted to subsistence farmland. With these changes, both local livelihoods, and flora and fauna are being threatened. Both endemic and IUCN Red List species have been identified in this landscape, with some already threatened. There is therefore urgent need for action to halt further conversion of forest land within the framework of land use planning. Finer scale mapping of areas not allocated to oil palm plantations must also be a prerequisite for guiding land use planning land restoration interventions since the area is highly fragmented, including a full assessment of the drivers of land use change.
Keywords
agricultural land;endangered species;endemic species;forests;land use;livelihoods;native species;oil palms;oilseed plants;tropical forests;Uganda
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PUB23370