Climate change is a big problem in Sub-Saharan Africa because it brings about prolonged droughts and heavy rainfall that destroys crops. Further, heavy rainfall amounts throughout the entire region have caused flooding and landslides, thus leaving many houses destroyed and people and animals dead. However, the past, current, and future trends of climate change and its impact in Uganda remain unachieved. In this paper, we: 1) analyse the past, current, and future climate change in Uganda; 2) determine the relationship between climate variables; and 3) review the impact of climate change in Uganda. Our study employed the use of secondary data from authentic sources such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, journal articles, and books. We used Inverse Distance Weighing interpolation to show the trend of climate change in Uganda. We employed the PCA to show the variation between climate variables in different regions in Uganda. Our data shows that the mean ± SD of temperature (25.24±3.85), rainfall (1252.5±476.9), relative humidity (63.45±7.11), and solar (19.831±1.46) from 1982 to 2019. One Way ANOVA showed a significant difference between temperature (p = 0.003), relative humidity (p = 0.00), and solar radiation (p = 0.00), while rainfall did not vary between regions (p = 0.239). Our study evidences that the current climate change impacts in Uganda include prolonged drought, which causes water stress and increases crop loss, floods, landslides, invasion of locusts, rises in lake water levels, and floating islands on Lake Victoria.

Deforestation in Ugandan Tropical Rainforest Reserves as threat to natural medicine is still undocumented. In this study, we reviewed literature on deforestation most especially from 1990-2020 in the Tropical Rainforest Reserves. We examine the trend of deforestation, impact of deforestation on medicinal plant species’ and threatened medicinal plant species in the Tropical Rainforest Reserves in Uganda. Secondary data from National Forestry Authority on deforestation (1990-2020) was analysed to determine the trend of forest deforestation while PubMed®, Google Scholar, and SCOPUS databases were also used to provide information on the threatened medicinal plants. Our results show that there has been an annual incredible decline of 17% in the trend of deforestation both in Tropical Rainforest Reserves (low-stocked and well-stocked). The results of the review also noticed a 0.86 strong positive correlation in the decline of both Tropical Rainforest Reserves. This review also documented 13 medicinal plants as the most threatened in the Ugandan Tropical Rainforest Reserves. The medicinal plants in Uganda include Dioscorea bulbifera, Cytropsis articulata, Prunus africana, Warburgia ugandensis, Entandrophragma utile, Irvingia gabonensis, Spathodea campanulate, Aloe ferox, Vernonia amygdalina, Erythrina abyssinica, Moringa oleifera, Hoslundia opposita Vahl and Milicia excelsa. Our study articulates human activities that are affecting medicinal plants include agricultural expansion, timber harvesting, charcoal burning, firewood harvesting, weak forest policies and laws, un clear forest boundaries infrastructure development e.g., roads.

The urbanization in Mbarara City Southwestern Uganda has increased the number of built-up and small-scale agricultural areas thus escalating pressure on the grassland and woodlot areas hence influencing land fragmentation and slum development. In this study, we focused on land use/land cover dynamics. This helped us to identify land uses that reduce grassland areas, which increases land fragmentation, and slum development. Presumably, the land uses in the area included built-up areas, grassland, small-scale agriculture, and woodlots. Built-up, grassland, and small-scale agriculture were vital for our analysis. We employed remote sensing techniques (Supervised-Maximum Likelihood Classifier) with two cloud-free high-resolution images of 2010 and 2022 in mapping spatial-temporal patterns in built-up, grassland, and small-scale agriculture. Our results evidenced that built-up area increased by (5.14%), grassland declined by (7.1%), small-scale agriculture increased by (2.62%), and woodlots reduced by (0.73%) between 2010 to 2022 and the accuracy assessment for the image classification was (83%). Our study found that an increase in built-up areas and small-scale agriculture led to the decline of the grassland and woodlot areas between 2010 to 2022 with a statistically significant difference (p = 0.03). There was also a strong positive correlation (r = 0.97) between land use/land cover types in 2010 and 2022. Our study recommends that Mbarara City Authority should put strict laws and regulations governing the minimum size of land required during sub-division to avoid land fragmentation which results in increased slum development. Increased land fragmentation may have an intense impact on important ecosystems such as grasslands.

Background: The Rwenzori region is endowed with a rich diversity of medicinal plants, which are utilized by communities to treat various diseases because they are easy to access, prepare and is part of a wealth of indigenous knowledge. Despite the utilization of these plants, there is a need to systematically document plants used in the Rwenzori region, which will help in preserving indigenous knowledge and aid the process of discovering new drugs that act as agents for health promotion and disease prevention. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in the western districts of Kabarole, Kasese, Bundibugyo, and Bunyangabu with the help of semi-structured questionnaires for data collection and 24 key informants' interviews with native herbal medicine men/women in the region.Results: Overall, seventy-seven medicinal plant species distributed in 40 families were found to be used by communities for treating over 67 diseases. The most commonly used medicinal plants included Prunus africana (Hook. f.). Kalkman ( 12), Hoslundia opposita Vahl (11), Bidens pilosa Linn. ( 11), Conyza sumatrensis (Retz.) E. Walker (9) and Ageratum conyzoides Linn. ( 9). The family of Asteraceae and Fabaceae made up most of the medicinal plant species used by the natives. The most used plant parts are the leaves, and boiling water is the main solvent used in the preparation of these herbal remedies, which are taken mainly orally. Conclusion:The communities of the Rwenzori region depend a lot on herbal medicine to treat various diseases irrespective of the availability of modern health care.