Browsing by Author "Igga, Yasin"

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    Impact of Artisanal Gold Mining on Wetland Health in Buhweju District, Southwestern Uganda
    (East African Nature and Science Organization, 2023-09-11) Nuwagira, Upton; Mubiru, David; Igga, Yasin; Nasasira, Perfect
    Wetland degradation due to anthropogenic activities including artisanal gold mining is widely common in Uganda, and this affects vegetation health status if not controlled. However, the use of the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to determine the health status of wetlands is rare. In this study, remote sensing techniques with the use of spatial-temporal Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) were used for the wetlands in Bitsya Subcounty, Buhweju district (noted for artisanal gold mining with the use of mercury) to determine the wetland health status for the period between 2012-2021. This was for the purposes of identifying target areas for intervention and developing appropriate, location-specific intervention options. 7 images of 30 * 30 m and 3 images of 10 * 10 m respectively, ortho-rectified, cloud-free Landsat and Sentinel images obtained from the USGS archive were analysed. The results showed that the high NDVI value (0.775) was detected in the year 2019 and the low NDVI value (0.068) was detected in the year 2017. The NDVI maps showed low values mostly in the middle of the wetland where artisanal gold mining was mostly taking place, indicating a huge decline in the wetland health status as compared to other wetland edges noticed with high NDVI. The results from the study suggest that the wetland policies in the study area could not be effectively implemented and this reduces the vegetation health status, threatening the functionality of the wetland and as well as loss of the free natural goods and services derived from them. This necessitates the development of wetland restoration campaigns. However, failure to implement the wetland policies may have an ecosystem impact on the wetland micro and macro-organisms, soil nutrients, and water quality as well as a decline in vegetation health
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    Review of Deforestation in Ugandan Tropical Rainforest Reserves: A Threat to Natural Medicine
    (East African Journal of Environment and Natural Resources, 2022) Nuwagira, Upton; Igga, Yasin; Ikiriza, Hilda
    Deforestation in Ugandan Tropical Rainforest Reserves as threat to natural medicine is still undocumented. In this study, we reviewed literature on deforestation most especially from 1990-2020 in the Tropical Rainforest Reserves. We examine the trend of deforestation, impact of deforestation on medicinal plant species’ and threatened medicinal plant species in the Tropical Rainforest Reserves in Uganda. Secondary data from National Forestry Authority on deforestation (1990-2020) was analysed to determine the trend of forest deforestation while PubMed®, Google Scholar, and SCOPUS databases were also used to provide information on the threatened medicinal plants. Our results show that there has been an annual incredible decline of 17% in the trend of deforestation both in Tropical Rainforest Reserves (low-stocked and well-stocked). The results of the review also noticed a 0.86 strong positive correlation in the decline of both Tropical Rainforest Reserves. This review also documented 13 medicinal plants as the most threatened in the Ugandan Tropical Rainforest Reserves. The medicinal plants in Uganda include Dioscorea bulbifera, Cytropsis articulata, Prunus africana, Warburgia ugandensis, Entandrophragma utile, Irvingia gabonensis, Spathodea campanulate, Aloe ferox, Vernonia amygdalina, Erythrina abyssinica, Moringa oleifera, Hoslundia opposita Vahl and Milicia excelsa. Our study articulates human activities that are affecting medicinal plants include agricultural expansion, timber harvesting, charcoal burning, firewood harvesting, weak forest policies and laws, un clear forest boundaries infrastructure development e.g., roads.
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    Review of the Past, Current, and the Future Trend of the Climate Change and its Impact in Uganda
    (East African Journal of Environment and Natural Resources, 2022) Nuwagira, Upton; Igga, Yasin
    Climate change is a big problem in Sub-Saharan Africa because it brings about prolonged droughts and heavy rainfall that destroys crops. Further, heavy rainfall amounts throughout the entire region have caused flooding and landslides, thus leaving many houses destroyed and people and animals dead. However, the past, current, and future trends of climate change and its impact in Uganda remain unachieved. In this paper, we: 1) analyse the past, current, and future climate change in Uganda; 2) determine the relationship between climate variables; and 3) review the impact of climate change in Uganda. Our study employed the use of secondary data from authentic sources such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, journal articles, and books. We used Inverse Distance Weighing interpolation to show the trend of climate change in Uganda. We employed the PCA to show the variation between climate variables in different regions in Uganda. Our data shows that the mean ± SD of temperature (25.24±3.85), rainfall (1252.5±476.9), relative humidity (63.45±7.11), and solar (19.831±1.46) from 1982 to 2019. One Way ANOVA showed a significant difference between temperature (p = 0.003), relative humidity (p = 0.00), and solar radiation (p = 0.00), while rainfall did not vary between regions (p = 0.239). Our study evidences that the current climate change impacts in Uganda include prolonged drought, which causes water stress and increases crop loss, floods, landslides, invasion of locusts, rises in lake water levels, and floating islands on Lake Victoria.