Abstract:
Land is an essential natural resource, both for survival and prosperity of humanity, and for the maintenance of all terrestrial ecosystems. Over millennia, people have become progressively more expert in exploiting land resources for their own ends. Land has gone through trends in its development and for Uganda has been from Customary to freehold and leasehold. With the invent of petroleum exploration activities since. early 2000 demonstrating that the Albertine Graben is endowed with oil and gas resources that have the potential for commercial development. The Government of Uganda plans to exploit these resources so that the generated income will contribute to early achievement of poverty eradication and create lasting value to the society as stated in the National Oil and Gas Policy.
The study was carried out in Buliisa and Hoima Districts of-Albertine Graben to assess the implications of petroleum developments on. land use change with the perceptions of the communities in-Hoima. and Buliisa. Satellite images and Key informant interviews were used to collect data. Data were analyzed using Geographical Information System software, Excel to get the trends between the years 2002-2016. The year 2002 was used as a base year when petroleum developments activities were still on surveys while 2008 was when developments were at the peak and 2016 waiting on production. In tracing the traditional trends of land use changes, the key informants mentioned, 2002 to 2016 as periods which had severe land use changes resulting into infrastructure developments (roads, schools; hospitals, work camps), centres, migrations increase), resources. degradation, extension into unused land and increase -of area under crop cultivation were the main proximate causes of land use changes. There were also land use change effects on environment and forest. production including increased vegetation clearance and reduced forest size.
Research findings suggest that there are trends, in land use change mainly attributed to petroleum development in the study area. However, majority of the respondents (83.3%) reported minimal
impact because the activities of petroleum are still in the early stages citing serious impact when production starts. The research therefore, recommends the use of the regulatory framework by the Ugandan government and incorporate an environmental management system which involves the assessment and control of risks and the creation of an in built system of maintenance and review.
Key words: Land use, Land use change, Buliisa, Hoima, Albertine, Drivers, Implications, Petroleum Developments
