Dataset Information

Climate anomalies, land degradation and rural out-migration in Uganda.

ABSTRACT: Globally, rural livelihoods are increasingly challenged by the dual threats of land degradation and climate change. These issues are of particular concern in sub-Saharan Africa, where land degradation is believed to be severe and where climate change will bring higher temperatures and shifts in rainfall. To date, however, we know little about the relative effects of these various potential environmental stressors on migration. To examine these processes, we link longitudinal data from 850 Ugandan households with environmental data on soils, forests, and climate, and then analyze these data using approaches that account for potential spatial and temporal confounders. Our findings reveal that climate anomalies, rather than land degradation, are the primary contributor to environmental migration in Uganda, with heat stress of particular importance. Short hot spells increase temporary migration, an element of a diversified household livelihood strategy, while long-term heat stress induces permanent migration through an agricultural livelihoods pathway.

SUBMITTER: Call M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8442715 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Climate anomalies, land degradation and rural out-migration in Uganda.

Call Maia M Gray Clark C

Population and environment 20200530 4

Globally, rural livelihoods are increasingly challenged by the dual threats of land degradation and climate change. These issues are of particular concern in sub-Saharan Africa, where land degradation is believed to be severe and where climate change will bring higher temperatures and shifts in rainfall. To date, however, we know little about the relative effects of these various potential environmental stressors on migration. To examine these processes, we link longitudinal data from 850 Uganda ...[more]

PMID: 34531626

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Project description:In semi-arid regions, interactions between biophysical and socio-economic variables are complex. Such interactions and their respective variables significantly alter land use and land cover, degrade landscape's structure, and impede the efficacy of the adopted land management interventions. This scenario is particularly prevalent in communal land tenure system or areas managed by a hybrid of traditional and state led institutions. Hence, this study sought to investigate the impacts of land use and land cover changes (LULCCs) on land degradation (LD) under communal rural districts, and the key drivers of habitat fragmentation in the Greater Sekhukhune District Municipality (GSDM), South Africa. The study used the wet and dry season multi-temporal remotely sensed image data, key-informant interviews, and workshop with tribal council to determine the major drivers of LULCC and LD. Results revealed that mines and quarries, subsistence and commercial cultivation, and thicket/dense bush LULCs declined significantly during the study period. These LULCs mostly declined in wet season, with loss in vegetation cover highly prevalent. Specifically, the highest conversions were from shrub/grassland to bare soil, thicket/dense bush to shrub/grassland, and shrub/grassland to residential, respectively. Generally, LULCC affected vegetation productivity within the study area, with increased negative NDVI values observed during the dry season. The findings from key informants and the tribal council workshop emphasized that soil erosion, abandonment of cropland, and injudicious land use (i.e. overgrazing and consequent bush encroachment) have severely degraded the land. The study also established that the degrading land can be attributed to the weakening local communal land management system, particularly the weakening tribal councils. The study recommends an urgent need for collaborative (i.e. government, tribal authorities, and land users) land management through designing relevant multi-stakeholder LD mitigation measures.

Dataset Information

Climate anomalies, land degradation and rural out-migration in Uganda.

Publications

Climate anomalies, land degradation and rural out-migration in Uganda.

Similar Datasets

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