The influence of different land-use type on bird species diversity in areas adjacent to the Udzungwa Mountains National Park, Tanzania.

Kibwe, Christina Daniel (2023) The influence of different land-use type on bird species diversity in areas adjacent to the Udzungwa Mountains National Park, Tanzania. Masters thesis, The Open University of Tanzania.

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Abstract

The study has three specific objectives; to examine the land use practised adjacent to the Udzungwa Mountains National Park; to assess the trend of bird species diversity as per land use category adjacent to UMNP and to evaluate the similarities of bird species composition and structure to adjacent UMNP. In this study, three transects was determined to identify bird species in Udzungwa Mountainous National Park. The three selected villages were Sanje, Mang’ula A and Kanolo. A systematic random sampling technique was used to select 60 heads of households for the questionnaire interview. Purposive sampling was used to identify key informants. Both descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were carried out for quantitative data analysis using IBM SPSS version 16 package. Descriptive statistics based on measures of central tendency and measures of dispersion such as means, frequency counts, and histograms was used in the analysis, likewise, the trend of bird species and to compare the similarities of bird species between two land use are done. The type of land use identified were settlement and plantation. Birds’ data collection in all land uses involved two methods; transect and direct observation. The data were analysed using the Shannon-Weiner Index (H´). Sorensen similarity index and SPSS. The Shannon-Wiener Index of bird diversity for settlement and plantation were 3.1 and 3.7, respectively. The Sorensen Similarity Index revealed that these two land uses are not similar (Settlement 11 and plantation 43 species) while 22 species were found in both land uses. The results revealed that a high number of bird species were found in plantation land use because of the availability of food and roosting sites for them. It is recommended that to improve bird diversity in areas disturbed and occupied by human activities, gardening and tree planting should be improved. Keywords: Bird species, Diversity, Land use, Udzungwa Mountains National Park

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