The Effect of Land Use and Land Cover Changes on the Livelihoods of Agro-Pastoral Communities in Baidoa District-Bay Region, Somalia

Abstract

Land use and land cover (LULC) changes have become a focus of global climate science and environmental research since the introduction of ‘Land use and land cover project’ in the early 1990s by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP) and the International Human Dimensions Program (IHDP). (Han et al., 2015). The motivation of the ‘LULC project’ was to build a compendium of knowledge from local to global land use/cover dynamics to knit local perspectives and advance scientific models capable of predicting future LULC change patterns for scientists and other stakeholders (Lambin et al., 2001). Climate-induced land use/cover changes precipitate ecosystem degradation in forms including restrained production capacity, habitat intrusion, biodiversity loss (Sala et al. 2000), soil degradation and exhaustion of water and nutrients in productive soil. Arguably, capital-driven agribusiness corporations in the global north see changes in LULC as not all negative, because of the colossus of wealth that can be generated from the production of food, fuel, and fiber in resource use efficiency (Lambin and Geist., 2006).

This research aimed to study the impact of LULC on the livelihoods of agro-pastoral communities in Baidoa Somalia. It examined 2 main questions: The drivers of LULC and the coping strategies that the communities adopted to tackle LULC. A sample consisting of 40 agro pastoral households, 2 FGDs, and 5 KII. A semi-structured questionnaire on livelihoods and land use change was administered.

The study found Population growth, urban expansion, land enclosures, deforestation of communal land. Climate and environmental factors and protracted conflict as the major drivers of LULC. It also found displacement migration and loss of livelihoods are the implication of such a LULC. For the question of coping strategies, the communities employed a wide range of strategies to adaptively manage the crisis. Migration in search of better livelihoods, humanitarian assistance that become the lifeline of the affected communities and communal networks and bonds that responded well in times of crisis.