Beyond Ecological Success of Corridors: Integrating Land Use History and Demographic Change to Provide a Whole Landscape Perspective

Abstract

The performance of corridors has often been measured through ecological attributes, or the progress towards restoration of a notionally intact section of landscape. A corridor’s ability to reconnect fragmented landscapes is of critical importance for biodiversity conservation. However, what remains understudied is how these corridors within protected area systems fit into the park-people rubric. It is important to learn from older corridors to provide baseline comparisons in terms of restoration, land use and conservation policy, and park-people dynamics. We present an analysis of the landscape of Kibale National Park in western Uganda, which has maintained a corridor with Queen Elizabeth National Park to the south since 1926. The purpose and use of this corridor region has varied over time, from hunting, to biodiversity conservation, to extractive use, to farming. We examined the history of politics and demography both in and around this corridor and used satellite imagery to describe forest cover and conversion in this corridor, prior to and after park establishment. This analysis is useful not only to understand Kibale within a domesticated landscape, but also as a lens into the future of corridors and their larger landscapes in the East African Albertine Rift.