Livelihoods, land use and land cover change in the Zambezi Region, Namibia

Kamwi, Jonathan M.; Chirwa, Paxie W. C.; Manda, Samuel O. M.; Graz, Patric F.; Kätsch, Christoph

Livelihoods, land use and land cover change in the Zambezi Region, Namibia

dc.contributor.author	Kamwi, Jonathan M.	en
dc.contributor.author	Chirwa, Paxie W. C.	en
dc.contributor.author	Manda, Samuel O. M.	en
dc.contributor.author	Graz, Patric F.	en
dc.contributor.author	Kätsch, Christoph	en
dc.date.accessioned	2016-01-28T10:38:21Z	en
dc.date.available	2016-01-28T10:38:21Z	en
dc.date.epub	2015-03-29	en
dc.date.issued	2015-12	en
dc.description.abstract	This paper examines the socio-economic drivers of land use and land cover change and assesses the impacts of such changes to rural livelihoods in the Zambezi region of northern Namibia. We carried out a longitudinal analysis of Landsat imagery of land use and land cover. The analysis revealed that the amount of land in the region covered by forest increased significantly in the period from 1991 to 2010 whilst crop/grass land decreased. Focus group meetings, key informant interviews and semi-structured interviews covering 424 households stratified by gender were used. The results show that natural resource uses are vitally important in the rural livelihoods. The drivers of land use and land cover change are agricultural expansion, population increase and illegal logging. Livelihood coping strategies include piecework, food aid, borrowing from relatives and wild food collection. By gender stratification, piecework contributed 37 and 63 % while agriculture contributed 29 and 71 % of the income of male- and female-headed households. Logistic regression analysis showed knowledge of regulations, age group and species availability significantly (p < 0.05) influenced the choice of a household’s livelihood coping strategy. The study concludes that the changes in coping strategies influenced by a variety of factors have led to the diminished use of natural resources. For policy purposes, this suggests that state interventions can play a significant role in promoting more sustainable natural resource usage. This analysis enables effective decision-making to reconcile the efforts of sustainable development and natural resource management.	en
dc.description.sponsorship	Thanks are due to the communities of Kongola and Sibbinda constituencies in the Zambezi region for sharing their livelihood experiences with us. This research was supported by the University of Pretoria and the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry in Namibia. We are also grateful for the financial support from the Southern African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management (SASSCAL). Last but not the least, we would like to express our appreciation to the Forestry extension officers in the Zambezi region and all organisations and individuals who provided the necessary support and secondary data. This research complies with the current laws of the Republic of Namibia.	en
dc.identifier.citation	Livelihoods, land use and land cover change in the Zambezi Region, Namibia 2015, 37 (2):207 Population and Environment	en
dc.identifier.doi	10.1007/s11111-015-0239-2	en
dc.identifier.issn	0199-0039	en
dc.identifier.issn	1573-7810	en
dc.identifier.journal	Population and Environment	en
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/11288/595086	en
dc.language.iso	en	en
dc.relation.url	http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11111-015-0239-2	en
dc.research.unit	Biostatistics Unit	en
dc.rights	Archived with thanks to Population and Environment	en
dc.subject	Rural livelihoods	en
dc.subject	Land use	en
dc.subject	Land cover	en
dc.subject	Logistic regression	en
dc.subject	Change detection	en
dc.subject	Zambezi	en
dc.title	Livelihoods, land use and land cover change in the Zambezi Region, Namibia	en
dc.type	Article	en