The impacts of Maasai settlement on land cover, meteorological conditions and wind erosion risk in northern Tanzania

Abstract

Many land cover changes took place in northern Tanzania in the last decades. These land cover changes were determined using satellite images. The causes and consequences of the land cover changes were determined using literature and field data from interviews. It turned out that the Maasai, an ethnic group of pastoralists living in northern Tanzania, started to settle in the 1970s, because of governmental policies, population growth, climate change, cultural shift or a combination of these factors. When settled the Maasai started to adopt crop cultivation next to their traditional pastoralism. In order to do this, they had to clear the traditional vegetation. This land clearance has consequences for the wind speed and wind erosion risk. The latter two were estimated using a model with input data from both field plots and scenarios. It turned out that the erosion risk becomes high after clearance, since trees are very important in wind reduction and shrubs are very important in covering the soil surface and preventing particle entrainment.