Linkages between changes in land use, biodiversity and land degradation in the Loitokitok area of Kenya

This study attempts to link land-use change, biodiversity and land degradation for the Loitokitok area, just north of Kilimanjaro in Kenya.These are the highlights of our findings:• Land-use change.The Loitokitok area has experienced rapid and extensive land use change over the past 30 years in response to a variety of economic, cultural, political, institutional and demographic processes.Expansion of agriculture down the slopes of Mt.Kilimanjaro dominates these changes in land use.Farmers expanded rainfed agriculture from the slopes of Mt.Kilimanjaro onto the piedmont on the lower slopes and also now grow irrigated crops around swamps and along rivers.The expansion of the area under crops has restricted the viability of herding activities around the base of the mountain, resulting in increased sedentarization and diversification of herding livelihoods into mixed herding-farming livelihoods.Wildlife populations, which had access to swamps ringing the base of Kilimanjaro in the 1970's now have no access to one of these swamps and only partial access to three others.• Subdivision of group ranches.Over the past 25 years there has been considerable tension in the group ranches over the security of land tenure, especially for young people.This has created a demand for sub-division, a process that has now begun on many of these lands.We expect sub-division will increase the security of land rights, but will also reduce the viability of pastoralism and wildlife, by restricting movements.• Land use and gender.Women supply more of the labour required in livestock production than the men.This evolution in care of livestock towards women, and in crop production towards both men and women, appears to be related to sedentarisation.