Analysis of Spatial and Temporal Changes in Land Uses and its Implications to the Conservation of Eastern Selous-Niassa Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCA)

Abstract

This paper discusses the less known spatial and temporal changes that have occurred over a period of 30 years in land use and land cover and their impacts on terrestrial ecosystem services of Selous – Niassa TFCA. Objectives of the study were to analyze the spatial and temporal changes of land use/cover, estimate amount of trees loss, and analyse wood balance. The study employs field survey, remote sensing and GIS techniques were employed to assess spatio-temporal dynamic of land use/cover. The study has revealed that there has been a significant land use and vegetation cover transformation from one class to another. For the period between 1986 and 1997 the area under closed woodland, open woodland, grassland, built up area, and cultivated land increases by 1.14%, 0.62%, 2.92%, 0.06%, and 2.17% respectively. Likewise, bushland and water decreased by 6.86 and 0.04 respectively. For the period between 1997 and 2005, the closed woodland, open woodland, and bushland declined by 9.65%, 8.41%, and 5.23% respectively. For the same period of time, grassland, water, built up area, and cultivated land increased by 5.3%, 0.01%, 0.29%, and 17.7% respectively. Moreover, for the period between 2005 and 2016, the closed woodland, open woodland, grassland, water, and cultivated area declined by 0.91%, 4.65%, 8.25%, 0.02% and 1.53% respectively. For the same period of time, bushland and built up area increased by 15.27% and 0.08% respectively. Also, the results revealed gain of trees regenerated in the study area during the period 1986 – 1997 with J Environ Sci Public Health 2017; 1 (3): 84-91 84 an average of 3.5 million trees per year. Besides, there was rampant conversion of woodland in the study area during the period 1997 – 2016 with average loss of 27 million trees per year. Wood supply in the study area for the year 2016 is at least 25 times the average demand per year per capita. Conversely, the trend of wood supply from 1986 to 2016 shows dramatic deforestation of the area which implies tragedy of commons and is the public property where there are no control policies or rules. The study recommends an emergence of reviewing management and conservation strategies is unexceptional if we need sustainability of Selous-Niassa TFCA.