Browsing by Author "Salim, Ally"

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    Livelihood activities and their implications to the sustainability of wetland resources A Case Study of Katunguru and Nyamazugo Wetlands in Sengerema District
    (University of Dar es Salaam, 2015) Salim, Ally
    Wetlands play a crucial role in supporting essential ecosystem functions and livelihood activities including farming, livestock grazing, fishing and harvesting of macrophyte plants for the communities using them. The study was carried out at Katunguru and Nyamazugo wetlands in Sengerema District, Mwanza region with the aim of assessing livelihood activities and its implication to the sustainability of wetland resources. The specific objectives study were to (i) examine livelihood activities that exist in wetlands (ii) ascertain main factors affecting wetland environment (iii) assess the existing negative impacts of livelihood activities on the wetland environment. Data collection was done through household questionnaires, focus group discussion, key informant interviews and field observation. A total of 101 households were selected to be a sample size for the study obtained from simple random sampling. The findings show that wetlands resources support livelihoods of the communities for food and income by 90%. However, despite these roles the wetlands are subjected to over-exploitation that threatens its sustainability. The main factors negatively affecting the wetland environment are production, institutional and natural/human factors. The production factors include unsustainable crop production, livestock keeping, fishing and harvesting of wetland plants (macrophytes). The institutional factors include conflicting policies and legislation, while the natural /human factors are climate change and population growth. Negative impacts for the exploitation of wetland resources were observed to be loss of biodiversity, loss of soil fertility, soil erosion, pollution from agrochemicals and wetland loss.This study suggests for a sustainable management of wetland resources to provide opportunities for improving livelihood activities thereby making a lasting contribution to poverty reduction for environmental and ecological sustainability.