Abstract
The assessment of impacts of pastoral herds to the fringing wetlands of Lake Victoria in Magu district in Mwanza region was carried out in 1999/2000. Lamadi village located along Speke Gulf of Lake Victoria was chosen. The main farming systems in the area are agriculture, agro-pastoralism, and pastoralism. The wetlands are heavily used for livestock grazing during the dry season. Since 1990s the area has been experiencing a high influx of immigrant pastoral herds from drought prone districts. The increasing livestock numbers have led into serious degradation of wetlands. The type of damages includes: soil erosion, loss of vegetation cover and deforestation. This lead to pollution of Lake Victoria along the Speke gulf in particular as the wetlands was buffering a lot of pollutants from the catchments. The range condition at Lamadi was rated fair. The carrying capacity of rangelands was estimated at 3.57–6.75 ha/LU and the wetlands were seriously degraded causing heavy soil erosion and environmental pollution during rainy season. It was recommended to raise people’s awareness on conservation of environment and mobilise communities to take responsibility on management of the environmental resources.
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