Land use changes, impacts and options for sustaining productivity and livelihoods in the basin of Lake Victoria.

Abstract

Land-use change is one of the main drivers of environmental change. It influences the basic resources of land, including the soil. Its impact on soil often occurs so creepingly that land managers hardly contemplate initiating ameliorative or counterbalance measures. Poor land management has degraded vast amounts of land, reduced our ability to produce enough food, and is a major threat to rural livelihoods in many developing countries. Land use in the basin of lake Victoria like other parts of east Africa is changing fast. While some areas are undergoing expansion of cultivation and grazing, others are intensifying. Common to all is that there are impacts on sustainability of the natural systems on which productivity depends. The nature of landscapes and the geomorphologic processes in the lake basin make land use change highly sensitive to erosion and degradation. There is an urgent need for a regional framework and guidelines for sustainable land management including all sectors of land use like cropping, grazing and urbanization. This paper highlights some of the changes in land use in the lake basin, presents the implications of these changes on productivity and gives some investment options for developing sustainable land use.