Sub-Saharan Africa has a vast amount of uncultivated, arable land – about 2 million km², accounting for about 50% of the global total. This land is a critical habitat for many animal species, including birds.
I was part of a team that carried out a study which assessed how changes to land use – including the expansion of settlements, livestock production, pest removal and cultivation – were affecting bird populations in the Lake Victoria Basin, in south-western Kenya.
We found that these changes degraded and destroyed natural landscapes at all three of our study sites. This caused a significant loss of bird biodiversity, including rare, threatened or unique species.
