Mapping and quantifying perceptions of environmental change in Kilombero Valley, Tanzania

Abstract

Large-scale land acquisitions are a critical driver of global socio-environmental change, in particular in the Global South. This study aims to investigate drivers, impacts and feedbacks of environmental change in Kilombero Valley, Tanzania, a region in rapid societal and environmental transformation. We use land cover classifications to map and quantify land cover changes from 1990 to 2016, and compare these with local perceptions of change from fieldwork conducted in 2015 and 2016. The land change detection clearly shows farmland expansion over the wetlands, which is in line with local perceptions, but fails to detect changes in forest cover, which contradicts local perceptions that proclaim rapid deforestation over the past decade. In order to move towards more inclusive sustainable development, there is a need to break the power asymmetries between agribusinesses and local farmers. Our approach posits that policies of importing regions and countries where land is leased need to be strengthened to make sure that agribusinesses establish farms that are consistent with local and domestic needs. Such policies should not only be informed by assessments of environmental change, but also be guided by local knowledge, needs and future aspirations. Keywords Deforestation Á Large-scale land acquisitions Á Mixed methods Á Participatory research Á Remote sensing Á Socio-environmental change Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (

The Impact of Land Use/Land Cover Change (LULCC) on Water Resources in a Tropical Catchment in Tanzania under Different Climate Change Scenarios

“…This study focuses on changes from all LULC classes except built-up areas to either cropland or cropland-rice, although local studies in the catchment indicate the problem of deforestation as well [28]. However, deforestation is not as pronounced for the entire catchment ( Figure 4) [1] and therefore only changes into agricultural LULC classes were explicitly modeled.…”

“…The most important crop for this conversion is rain-fed rice, that is grown in the lowland areas [13,27]. However, deforestation is becoming more important with the increasing population and the growing demand for timber, fuelwood and charcoal production [28]. Other drivers of change are economic development, foreign agricultural investments, agro-technological advancements, favorable biophysical factors, policies, the aforementioned population growth, and increased migration of pastoralists into the valley [23,28].…”

“…However, deforestation is becoming more important with the increasing population and the growing demand for timber, fuelwood and charcoal production [28]. Other drivers of change are economic development, foreign agricultural investments, agro-technological advancements, favorable biophysical factors, policies, the aforementioned population growth, and increased migration of pastoralists into the valley [23,28]. These LULCC will affect ecosystem services and water resources in the catchment and scientific guidance is needed in order to enable a sustainable development of the catchment [1,13].…”

“…These LULCC will affect ecosystem services and water resources in the catchment and scientific guidance is needed in order to enable a sustainable development of the catchment [1,13]. Inhabitants of the catchment already report changing water dynamics, such as lower water levels and consequently depleted fish stocks [28]. Paddy rice plays a specific role in this study due to its large-scale suitability in the catchment according to the SAGCOT plans [22] and additionally due to its high water demand and the resulting implications on water resources [29].…”

Foreign demand for agricultural commodities drives virtual carbon exports from Cambodia

“…Tropical forest loss is difficult to observe through coarse or medium resolution satellite imagery, unless the deforestation is extensive and intense (Johansson and Abdi 2019). In order to assess how landcover maps vary in terms of forest cover and forest loss, we compared existing land cover classifications of Cambodia on a national and sub-national scale.…”