Increasing land use/cover changes and the drastic decline in wildlife population have been observed in the Masai Mara Ecosystem over the past three decades.
These changes are as a result of a number of factors, but mainly related to habitat loss due to agricultural encroachment and the mushrooming tourist facilities.
Information about changing patterns of land use/cover through time and the factors influencing such changes are important for planning for sustainable utilization of resources.
To study the long term land use/cover changes and wildlife population trends in the Masai Mara Ecosystem, we integrated data from different sources and used different methods and approaches including satellite remote sensing, field surveys and wildlife population trend analysis.
Post classification analysis of land use/cover maps and integration of various data using GIS approach was adopted to examine land use/cover changes and wildlife population dynamics.