The impact of refugee settlements on land use changes and vegetation degradation in West Nile Sub-region, Uganda

Abstract

Uganda continues to experience high-refugee population influx that is beyond the established settlement capacities. Little information is available on the present and future impacts of settling refugees and host-communities on landuse changes and vegetation degradation. This study used Sentinel-2 images (20m) of 2016-2019 and Dinamica Ego-software to determine the current and future spatial areal-extent of changes in 2022. Findings revealed a rarefied increase in areas under subsistence-farming, builtups and refugee-settlements while the losses were seen in savannah-grasslands, wetlands and woodlands. In 2021, the most significant increases in the land will be experienced in builtup-areas, settlements and commercial farming. The most degraded vegetation types were savannah-grassland, woodlands and tree-plantations. These were primarily attributed to unending activities of deforestation, bush-burning, high-refugee population, land-conflicts with host-communities and wetland reclamation. Thus, unless sustainable farming and energy-saving practices are promoted and adopted, the landscape is likely to remain not even with remnants of green-cover.

Keywords:

• Refugees
• land use changes
• vegetation degradation
• Dinamica Ego
• Uganda

Acknowledgement

The authors are grateful to the funding opportunity received from Kyambogo University Research Competitive Grants scheme to conduct this study

Disclosure statement

The authors of this article have no hidden interests towards its publication.