LAKE VICTORIA BASIN

Land use change

With average land holdings estimated at 0.75 ha per capita and a population growing at a rate of 3 per cent per year (Lake Victoria Basin Commission 2007),

the LVB continues to undergo significant changes in land use. Huge sections of the Basin have been taken over by settlements and some areas have been inundated by water following the construction of dams, while others have been opened up for mining. Significant areas of the Basin have also been converted to farmland. Vast tracts of wetlands have been converted to agriculture and settlements, among other uses. As much as 13 per cent of the wetlands in the LVB are said to be severely degraded (Lake Victoria Basin Commission 2007); this includes the densely populated Nakivubo Wetlands in Uganda and the Yala swamps in Kenya (Abila 2002). The wetlands that once engulfed the Mwanza Gulf have been converted into agricultural lands, primarily rice fields, while some sections have been taken over by human settlements. Sections of the Akaranya Wetland system in Rwanda are now used for subsistence farming.

Pasture in Eldoret, Kenya

Land-use patterns

Lake Albert

KENYA

Lake Kyoga Victoria Nile

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

Lake Baringo

UGANDA

Kampala

Lake Wamala

Lake Bogoria

Katonga

Nzola

Lake George

Lake Edward

Lake Kachira

Sondu

Lake Kyanebalola

Lake Victoria

Lake Naivasha

Kagera

Nairobi

Lake Ikimba

Altitude

Mara

5 000 m

RWANDA

Lake Kivu

4 000

Kigali

Lake Burigi

3 000

Lake Victoria basin

Mbalageti

2 000

Land-use

Simiyu

1 500

Agricultural areas Protected areas Main urban areas

BURUNDI

1 000

Bujumbura

500

200

100 km

TANZANIA

Sources: International Union for Conservation of Nature, 2014, “World Database on Protected Areas” (protectedplanet.net, accessDecember 2015); Eric O. Odada et al., 2004, “Mitigation of EnvironmentalProblems in Lake Victoria, East Africa: Causal Chain and Policy Options Analyses”, Ambio, Vol. 33, No. 1-2, RoyalSwedishAcademy of Sciences.

Lake Tangayika

Copyright©2016GRID-Arendal ·Cartografare ilpresente/NievesLópez Izquierdo

Figure 2.4: Land use patterns in the Lake Victoria Basin

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