Abstract:
Bukombe-Mbogwe Forest Reserve (BMFR)
has substantially lost its vegetation cover
following Artisanal and Small-scale Gold
Mining (ASGM). The study aimed at
examining vegetation cover changes in
BMFR and surrounding villages due to
ASGM in Mbogwe District. Purposive and
random sampling were employed obtaining
138 respondents. Data was collected through
remote sensing, participant observation,
questionnaire survey, key informant
interviews and focus group discussions.
Landsat images of three window periods
(1984, 2002 and 2020) were analysed
qualitatively and quantitatively using
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index
(NDVI) and supervised classification of
Maximum Likelihood (ML) algorithm
techniques respectively. Descriptive and
content analysis were conducted for
quantitative and qualitative socio-economic
data respectively. By using NDVI technique,
median values decreased in BMFR from 0.57
(dense vegetation) to 0.34 (shrubs and
grasslands). Land use/cover changes
(LULCC) for 1984 to 2020 proved that there
was decrease in dense vegetation from
46.4% to 25.62%, bare-land from 43.23% to
20.06% and increase in sparse vegetation
from 9.4% to 46.86% and built-up land from
0.97% to 7.46%. Logs for pit construction were extracted from BMFR by 67.5%.
Therefore; ASGM has negatively changed
vegetation cover in BMFR and surrounding
villages. The paper recommends increasing
protection in BMFR by employing Joint
Forest Management (JFM).
