Participatory land use governance and livelihoods in Awoja Watershed, Uganda

Abstract

This study examined the ways in which participation of local people in managing natural resources as an adaptation strategy affects the livelihoods of communities in Awoja watershed in Eastern Uganda. Specifically, the study assessed the changes in land use practices, determined whether local people contributed significantly to policy implementation, examined the effects of social, economic and political motivations on actor involvement in the governance of Awoja watershed and established the relationship between participation and livelihood outcomes in the watershed. Quantitative data and descriptive statistics, were analysed using SPSS (Ver 26) software, while land use changes were analyzed using GIS Maps taken over a period of 3 decades. The study used correlations and simple regressions to analyze the relationships and effects among variables respectively. Content analysis was used to analyze qualitative data. Altogether 300 respondents from 2 districts implementing participatory environmental governance were interviewed. From the GIS maps, the analysis of land use characteristics showed trends of increasing degradation evidenced by changes in land use/cover types from the period 1986 to 2016. There was an increase in built areas from 0.21% between 1986-1996; to 3.28% between 2006 and 2016 and a notable decrease in forest cover from 107.48 Km2 in 1986 to 6.94 Km2 by 2016. The results also show a dramatic increase in small scale farming area from 629.44 Km2 to 2,376.64 Km2 from 1986-2016 while the area of wetland reduced from 2,810.47 Km2 to 1,355 Km2 over the same period. The analysis of levels of control of land use linked degradation of the natural resources in Awoja to weaknesses in land use control of some land use categories by the various actors. From the correlation results, the findings show that involving local actors in land use governance reduced the levels of control of land use (r =-0.223, P<0.01). The relationship between people’s participation and policy implementation showed that local people had significant contribution to policy implementation in Awoja. However, institutional bureaucracy, marginalization and conflict of interest as well as social barriers constrained effective participation in watershed management. The analysis also showed that actor participation was influenced by different motivations. From the quantitative analysis, it was found that actor participation in watershed governance had a significant positive correlation with livelihoods outcomes such as diversification, mobility and improvement in the ecological environment. The study found that various livelihood capitals namely physical, social and natural capitals had been enhanced due to involvement of actors in watershed governance. However, it was noted that there was limited political capital enhanced among local communities as opposed to the local bureaucrats and civil servants. The findings suggest that whereas local participation in the governance of Awoja watershed has had positive effects on livelihoods, effective participation was contingent on the motivation of different actors involved in watershed management. Local compromises based on political, social and economic factors reduced the efficacy of participatory processes in the watershed. The sustainable management of the watershed is possible if the functionality of local institutions is improved, political interests delinked, rules and regulations are adequately implemented.