FITCA Assessment of Land Use, Vegetation and Human Perceptions

B T * * ★ * % ★ dr 1LRI ***** INTERNATIONAL LIVESTOCK RESEARCH INSTITUTE Farming in Tsetse Controlled Areas FITCA Environmental Monitoring and Management Component EMMC Project Number: 7.ACP.RP.R. 578 Assessment of Land Use, Vegetation and human perceptions on environmental changes Akoroi Village, Soroti District, Eastern Uganda. Joseph Maitima, Evanson Njuguna, Christopher Laker, Annah Rutebuka, Simon Mugatha and Dorcas Mbuvi December 2003 Natural Resources Institute . TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.................................................................................... 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS.......................................................................................2 LIST OF FIGURES...............................................................................................4 LIST OF MAPS......................................................................................................4 LIST OF TABLES................................................................................................. 5 OVERVIEW: Fitca Project..................................................................................6 GENERAL INTRODUCTION............................................................................7 The Study Area..................................................................................................... 8 People, Occupation, Technologies.......................................................................9 Objectives.............................................................................................................10 Hypotheses...........................................................................................................11 PART I INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................13 STUDY AREA......................................................................................................14 RESULTS.............................................................................................................. 17 Cultivated areas or croplands (40 %)................................................................18 Built up Areas (6 % )........................................................................................... 19 Natural areas (54 %)...........................................................................................21 Ground Survey Change indicators.....................................................................22 PART II INTRODUCTION TO VEGETATION SURVEYS......................................26 Habitat Diversity and Fragmentation................................................................27 METHODS............................................................................................................28 Study P lot.............................................................................................................28 Sampling Plan..................................................................................................... 30 RESULTS.............................................................................................................. 30 DISCUSSIONS.....................................................................................................36 Page I or 2 PART III SOROTI DISTRICT (AKOROI VILLAGE)..................................................38 Household Information .......................................................................................................38 Age of Household Head........................................................................................................38 Education level of Household Heads...................................................................................38 Duration of stay by households in the area........................................................................39 Land Use Activities .............................................................................................................. 39 Main occupation of households...........................................................................................39 Land ownership......................................................................................................................40 Crop Production ................................................................................................................... 40 Crop husbandry practices.....................................................................................................41 Land Preparation Methods...................................................................................................44 Crop planting methods..........................................................................................................44 Livestock ownership and management.........................................................................46 Livestock ownership.............................................................................................................. 46 Livestock based income.........................................................................................................47 Grazing Systems ....................................................................................................................48 Perceived Trypanosomosis Prevalence and Control......................................................... 49 Vegetation Types ...................................................................................................................50 Knowledge of plant species.................................................................................................. 50 Wildlife Biodiversity ............................................................................................................50 Changes in wildlife types and numbers............................................................................... 50 Wildlife conflicts.....................................................................................................................51 Water Resources....................................................................................................................52 Domestic Water Sources.......................................................................................................52 Seasonality and Access to Water..........................................................................................54 Fuel Resources.......................................................................................................................54 Fuel sources...........................................................................................................................54 Availability of fuel................................................................................................................. 56 Forest Products......................................................................................................................56 Level of use of forest products............................................................................................. 57 DISCUSSION....................................................................................................... 58 GENERAL CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS.......................60 REFERENCES.....................................................................................................63 Appendix 1 ............................................................................................................65 List of plants in Soroti............................................................................................................... 65 APPENDIX 2.........................................................................................................68 Questionnaire used in socio-economic surveys......................................................................68 Appendix 3 ............................................................................................................85 Photos capturing some of the environmental scenarios in Akoroi Village........................... 85 LIST OF FIGURES Fig .1: Map showing FITCA Uganda districts and EMMC sites....................................... 10 Fig. I - 1: Bar graph of area cover of major land use types....................................................19 Fig. I I —1: Photo o f a tree debarked for fib e r........................................................................27 Fig II-2: Photo showing a remnant forest and a recently cleared field ............................28 Fig. II-3: Photo of Olivia doing a quadrat in Akoroi............................................................ 29 Fig. II 4a: Proportion o f land under various cover type use................................................30 Fig. II 4b: Number of quadrats sampled for various vegetation layers.................................31 Fig. II 4c: Number of species per hactare by general land use cover types........................ 32 Fig. II 4d : Percentage cover of different vegetation types......................................................33 Fig. II 4e: Density of trees and shrubs per hectare.................................................................34 Fig II 4f: Mean vegetation height (m) in general land use types.......................................... 35 Fig. Ill - 1: Age of household heads in Akoroi village, Soroti District.................................38 Fig. Ill -2 : Education level of household heads in Akoroi village, Soroti District............39 Fig III - 3: la n d ownership

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