Assessments of economic implications of land degradation, a case study of rangelands in Murchison falls national park Uganda.

Abstract

A case study assessment of rangeland degradation at Murchison Falls National park Uganda was done from December 2016 to June 2017. A significant portion of the grassland and savanna ecosystem is over utilized, due to inappropriate rangeland management, Uganda’s rangelands are threatened by overgrazing, followed by altered grassland composition and loss of vegetation cover in the. grassland ecosystem, and by bush encroachment in the savanna ecosystem. Although not 211 land is degraded, there are some parts where signs of degradation can be found. The study objectives were to assess the economic implications of rangeland degradation and determine the status. of the rangeland in terms of vegetation cover (range condition). The current status of rangeland was determined through determining the biomass of grass obtained from different areas and this was done through the use of the NDVI images which helped in obtaining data about the vegetation cover of Murchison falls for five years that was from 2010 to 2014. The economic implication of rangeland degradation was through gelling of samples of grass through clipping which was dried and the weight of the dry grass and fresh grass was obtained through the use of the micrometer instrument to measure their respective weights. From the study it was Observed that approximately 1miilion of animals is lost per year due the undergoing degradation in the park as it was also observed that the vegetation cover of the park is seriously deteriorating which is becoming a threat to the parks earnings since the demand of touristic for wildlife depends on the availability of wildlife species in the park.