Thursday 28 June 2012

Cattle degrading Queen Elizabeth National Park


For quite along period of time natural resources have been degraded by various individuals, organizations and companies and this has caused diverse effects to the environment. Consumption of plant cover by livestock has a major impact and overgrazing is believed to contribute substantially to desertification and land degradation. On the other hand, plant removal reduces protective plant cover, vigor and re-growth capacity of plants which leads to soil compaction and when excessive may cause run-off and gully erosion since the soils will be left bear. Grazing implies removal of nutrients such as sodium, potassium and nitrogen from the plant cover.

Taking the case of Queen Elizabeth National park as a natural resource has faced serious degradation through extensive livestock grazing on the park by Kasese district. The leaders of this community raised the concerns during a stakeholders’ workshop to draft a five-year management plan for Lake Munyanyange. The workshop took place in Katwe town and was organized by NatureUganda where issues concerning degradation of natural resources where identified, for example, depletion of salt in lake Katwe and recommendations were advocated for. 
References: New Vision May 1st 2012.
By Maureen N
Intern, NatureUganda. 

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