Nature Uganda

ABSTRACT Armed conflicts and humanitarian crises across Africa generate profound yet understudied ecological consequences, reshaping ecosystems through complex processes of degradation and regeneration. This review synthesises evidence from across the continent to examine how warfare, displacement, and refugee settlements alter land use, biodiversity, and conservation outcomes. Conflicts weaken governance, disrupt protected area management, and enable illegal logging, mining, poaching, and unsustainable resource extraction, driving deforestation, habitat fragmentation, and wildlife decline. Refugee settlements, often located near ecologically sensitive areas, intensify pressures on forests, water, and arable land through high demand for fuelwood, food, and construction materials. Quantitative studies, including standardised biodiversity surveys in northern Uganda, reveal striking declines in amphibian, reptile, and plant diversity in refugee‐impacted areas compared to nearby controls. Moreover, empirical evidence from Central and East Africa documents sharp increases in bushmeat trade and consumption during and after periods of armed instability. Yet conflict can also produce paradoxical positive effects, where human abandonment allows vegetation recovery and wildlife resurgence, as documented in Mozambique's Gorongosa National Park and other war‐affected landscapes. These contrasting dynamics highlight the dual role of conflict as both a driver of ecological collapse and a catalyst for ecosystem resilience. Integrating social science, ecology, and conflict studies is essential to develop conservation strategies that address both human welfare and biodiversity protection. By framing conflict and displacement as intertwined socio‐ecological processes, our study highlights the urgent need for interdisciplinary approaches to manage Africa's vulnerable ecosystems under conditions of chronic instability.

ABSTRACTChanges in vegetation cover are occurring across sub‐Saharan Africa and can have substantial effects on ecological communities, but limited data make understanding status and trends difficult for many taxa. We surveyed birds for several decades across Uganda using point counts. Using time‐to‐detection analysis in a trait‐informed Bayesian multi‐species occupancy framework, we model bird species richness as a function of year and local tree cover across 28 sites. We test for trends in richness and occupancy, and for the relationship between these and local and landscape‐scale tree cover. Species richness increased at 75% of sites through the study period, and generalist bird species were most likely to be increasing in occupancy. Forest specialist bird species, and to a lesser extent generalists, responded positively to tree cover. Woody cover is changing across Uganda, with declines most pronounced in areas with the highest tree cover. This is likely to be causing declines in forest specialist species while favouring generalists. When tree cover decline is caused by conversion to croplands, rather than transitions to grasslands, grassland specialists are unlikely to benefit. Effects of climate and land use change and population pressure are likely to continue to alter woody plant cover and thus affect East African bird communities.

Globally, conversion of natural habitats to farmland poses the greatest extinction risk to birds, its consequences being especially pervasive in the case of large predators and scavengers, whose declines may trigger extensive cascading effects. Human population growth in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to drive a vast expansion in agricultural land by 2050, largely at the expense of pastoral land and savanna. The greatest expanse of suitable land yet to be converted to agriculture lies in East and Central Africa, including South Sudan, DRC and Tanzania. To gauge the effects of land conversion on raptor populations in this region we used road survey data from neighbouring Uganda, from which we determined linear encounter rates (birds seen 100 km−1; n = 33 species), and species richness (from 53 species). Encounter rates were much lower in pastoral land than in protected savanna (median difference: −41%; 23 species), and lower still in agricultural land (−90%; 24 species). These disparities were influenced by diet and body mass. For large eagles and vultures, encounter rates in agricultural land were 97% lower than in protected savanna (median of 12 species), whereas for smaller raptors they were 30% lower (12 species). Large, apex consumers were thus more vulnerable to farmland expansion, and this was reflected in the mean body mass of species encountered in savanna (1740 g), pastoral (995 g) and agricultural land (856 g). Body mass differences remained significant when vultures were excluded. Since threat status is linked to body mass, encounter rates for globally threatened and near-threatened species likewise showed a more pronounced deficit in farmland than those of least concern. Accordingly, pastoral and agricultural transects were less species-rich (10.6 and 6.7 raptor species 100 km−1, respectively) than savanna transects (13.2 species). Our findings suggest that the expansion of agricultural land in sub-Saharan Africa will reduce raptor populations in pastoral land and savanna by c. 50% and 90%, respectively. We propose that conservation efforts focus on identifying the causes of raptor population deficits in farmland, and on safeguarding tracts of unprotected, intact savanna, together with existing protected areas.

Long-term studies of urban birds are relatively scarce, especially in Africa. We analysed trends in species richness and bird species occurrence over a 32-year period in Kampala, Uganda, in order to assess changes in the bird community in a period that has shown rapid expansion of the city's human population. Given that species may respond to urbanisation according to their diet, we also analysed bird community trends of species groups defined according to predominant diet. There was an overall decline in species richness that was largely driven by declines in insectivores and granivores. General declines were evident also when the trends in the most common individual species in these two groups were considered. The occurrence of the commonest predator and scavenger species tended to increase over the period considered. Insectivorous species are likely to be especially affected by increasing urbanisation due to air pollution. Predators and scavengers are likely to have benefitted from the inability of municipal waste management to keep pace with growth in the human population, hence providing more potential food resources. Both insectivores and predators/scavengers are therefore good candidates for the development of urban indicators.

The Grey Crowned Crane Balearica regulorum was uplisted to globally Endangered in 2012. There is urgent need to determine the threats they face at local levels for their conservation. I conducted formal point-count surveys around the wetlands of eastern Uganda and observed no cranes. Groups of cranes were encountered when following directions from local inhabitants. Results from a questionnaire survey suggested that cranes make use of most of the wetlands in the region, and that the birds occur in small flocks averaging 6–8 individuals. Wetland loss through farming was reported to be the main threat, but I also documented poisoning, roost disturbance, and the collection of eggs and chicks. Rigorous conservation and education programs are needed to ensure the long-term survival of cranes and storks in this region.

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) in the tropics could slow climate change while contributing to biodiversity conservation and to improvement of people's livelihoods. In this study, we assessed the opportunities and challenges of implementing REDD in South West (SW) Uganda. We consulted key stakeholders and reviewed regional literature particularly focusing on the opportunities for conservation and human welfare benefits. We structured our study using the Simpson and Vira's (2010) framework for assessing policy interventions. The leading drivers of forest loss and degradation include escalating timber trade, fuel-wood extraction and agricultural expansion. Forestry authorities were poorly funded, largely uncoordinated and widely accused of corruption. Land tenure was a concern with many de-facto owners lacking legal titles. Generally, local stakeholders had limited awareness of REDD, and local expectations appeared un-realistically high. Mechanisms for allocating and administering REDD payments remained unknown. However, civil society organisations appeared the most popular option to manage REDD funding as government agencies had limited credibility. For REDD to succeed, the challenges we have highlighted will need to be addressed: key to success will be improvements in foundational knowledge, enabling institutions and social conditions. Our results have implications for potential REDD activities around the world which face similar challenges.