Population Growth and Natural Resources Exploitation in Rural Uganda: A Case Study of Lobule Sub-County, Koboko District

Abstract

There are global arguments on how population growth has been the main cause of natural resources exploitation. These differences in opinion have led to the need to establish whether this is true in all situations or not. Uganda, for example, has had a very fast population growth and hence would lead to an increased exploitation of natural resources. In the above respect this study was conducted to ascertain the relationship between population growth and natural resource exploitation using Lobule Sub County in Koboko District of Uganda as a sample. Specifically, the objectives were to establish the level of population growth and the state of natural resource exploitation in Lobule Sub-county; and finally determine the relationship between the above two factors. Using a questionnaire data was collected and analyzed from a sample of 89 respondents including key informants from local leaders, local non-government organizations and relevant experts at the district level. The results show that with r=0.277 and p=0.078 being greater than 0.05 there was an insignificant impact of rising human population growth on natural resources exploitation in this sub county. The effect of human population on natural resources exploitation was found to be only 7.7%. This indicates that there are other factors not studied here which were more significant in natural resources exploitation than rising human population in Lobule subcounty, Kotido District in Uganda.