Spatial-temporal analysis of land-use and land-cover change in East Pokot, Kenya (original) (raw)

2019

Abstract

Land-use and land-cover changes pose major challenges to local communities in many parts of the world. In the case of East Pokot in the Rift Valley of north-western Kenya, land-cover changes have a huge impact on livelihoods. While until the 1980s cattle husbandry was the prominent livelihood in the area, the socio-ecological dynamics of the past decades brought about major landscape changes. In this study, we present the land-cover changes over a period of 30 years (1985-2015), focusing on two processes in particular: the increasing bush encroachment in East Pokot (1), and the expansion of maize cultivation (2). The first process is identified as the land-cover change with the largest extent over the period of 30 years. The grass vegetation, which is essential for pastoral livelihoods and the successful rearing of cattle, has strongly declined and acacia bushes have encroached large areas all over East Pokot. The second process is a locally restricted process in the escarpment regi...

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