Community activities on protected areas: a case study of mount Elgon national park, Uganda;
Loading...
Files
Date
2012-09
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kampala International University, School of Engineering and Applied Science
Abstract
The study on man’s socio-economic activities on protected areas was carried
out on Mount Elgon national park and was specifically aimed at identifying
communities and their socio-economic activities, the impacts of these
activities on the park and the sustainable park management approaches.
The study used simple random sampling for the community members and
purposive for the knowledgeable about park management, methods of data
collection were questionnaire, interview, observation and use of available
literature.
The communities living around the park were the Bagishu, the Sebei and
the Benet. Their socio-economic activities in and around the park included
bee keeping, commercial coffee and wheat growing, hunting, pastoralism,
maize and beans growing, lumbering and bamboo collecting. The impacts of
these activities on the park were as follows; land degradation resulting into
mass wasting, soil erosion, loss of soil fertility, loss of forest generation due
to over harvesting of the forest products, damage of the growing seedlings
and shrubs by the grazing animals, poaching leading to loss of some animal
species and destruction of vegetation due to agricultural encroachment on
the park. The approaches to sustainable park management programmes
that are implemented are; resource management and protection programme
which involve programmes like park, community conservation and
development programme, Research and monitoring programme and
plantation management programme.
The study concluded that man’s socio-economic activities has numerous
negative impacts on the park and due to this, the MENP officials still face
several challenges in the management of the park. Also, though UWA has
tried to involve the surrounding communities in the management of the
park, most of communities still have negative attitudes as most of them said
that the land belongs to communities and thus they have a right to use the
resource
Description
a research report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of bachelor of science in environment management of Kampala international university.
Keywords
Community activities, mount Elgon national park