Impacts of Socio-Economic Activities on Land Use and Land Cover Changes in Narok North Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

Narok County is located in the south western part of Kenya. Ii is home to major rivers including the Mara and Ewaso Ng’iro River Basins. Large tracks of land initially under group ranch tenure system have been converted into freehold tenure. Agriculture and livestock production are the main land use practices followed by Wildlife Conservation areas (Narok CIDP 2018-2022). The highland areas of Mau Escarpments provide fertile ground for production of wheat barley, maize, beans, potatoes and peas as well as wool and dairy farming. (Narok CIDP 2013-2017). Uncontrolled urban development coupled with increase in population have been the main reasons for Land Use Land Cover Changes in Narok County. The purpose of this study therefore, was to assess the impacts of socio-economic activities on Land Use and Land Cover Changes in Narok North Sub-County. It set out to analyse the Land Use and Land Cover Changes between the year 1986, 2000 and 2019 as well as assessing the impacts of socio-economic activities on Land Use and Land Cover Changes in Narok North Sub-County. Both primary and secondary data were used in the study. A structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data on the impacts of socio-economic activities on Land Use and Land Cover Change while secondary data was collected from documents obtained from various agencies and organizations dealing with Environmental Protection. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics of mean, percentages and frequency while inferential statistics was done to test the association between the variables using the chi square test of association. Landsat satellite images covering Narok North Sub-County were acquired for three epochs; 1986, 2000 and 2019. The study revealed that there is a significant change in the Maasai Mau forest area based on the three images analyzed. The images showed that there was noticeable decrease in the forest cover from 44.8% in 1986 to 22.6% in 2019. The settlement area increased from 25.2% to over 40.6%. The forest land decreased by 8.7% between 2000 and 2019 and a large area of the land was used for farm land and settlement. The study also established that there was a statistically significant influence between the socio-economic drivers and the land use and cover in Maasai Mau forest (p < 0.05). The study therefore concluded that there has been a remarkable decrease in forest cover with more of the forest land being converted to farm land and settlements which has affected land cover in the area. The study recommends that all stakeholders in the conservation p