Abstract:

Land is a critical resource for the survival of the over 25 million inhabitants of the Lake Victoria basin
in which agriculture contributes immensely to local and national economies. The steady decline in
per capital land holding and escalating land degradation are posing serious concerns to food security
and environmental integrity thus threatening economic, social and physical survival in the lake region
now and in the future. The key land degradation issues addressed in this paper include escalating
soil erosion, declining soil fertility, agro-chemical pollution, salinization and loss of land cover. Using
the following driving force framework, that is, pressures-states-impact-response (DPSIR), the paper
presents a synthesis of the state of land use and land degradation in the basin, their causes and
impacts on human and environmental security. The paper notes that protecting the land quality for
the benefit of people is a major challenge in the basin and that the dilemma in sustainable land
management in the basin is that land use changes needed to promote the survival of society in
the long-term are at crossroads with what is essential to the survival of the population in the shortterm