Land as an essential resource is becoming increasingly scarce due to population growth. In the case of the Kenyan coast, population pressure causes land cover changes in the Arabuko Sokoke Forest, which is an important habitat for endangered species. Forest and bushland have been changed to agricultural land in order to provide livelihood for the rural population who are highly dependent on small-scale farming. Unclear land rights and misbalanced access to land cause uncontrolled expansion and insecure livelihoods. Secure land rights are crucial to improve living conditions for the local smallholders. Socio-economic and land tenure conditions were assessed in a study area close to Malindi in south-east Kenya to understand the human-induced changes in land cover. A combination between biophysical and socio-economic methods was used to identify the relationship between land cover change, land tenure and other socio-economic factors. Analyses in Geographic Information System (GIS) were chosen to examine in historical photographs and recent satellite imagery land cover changes between 1954 and 2017. This analysis was combined with quantitative questionnaires conducted on-site in 2017 and 2018 to identify factors influencing the land cover changes and especially to analyze the effects of land tenure on sustainable land use to reduce further land conversion. Moreover, this study statistically investigated the impact of land tenure issues on the tree population of the respective land plots using non-parametric tests as well as dependency analyses. We found significant relationships between the income of the interviewees and the tree population on land plots. It also appears that the fragmentation of land cover on a plot differs between respondents who have inherited their land and respondents who have purchased their land.

中文翻译：

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评估肯尼亚阿拉布科索科克森林周围土地使用权问题与土地覆盖变化之间的关系

由于人口增长，土地作为必不可少的资源变得越来越稀缺。就肯尼亚海岸而言，人口压力导致阿拉布科索科克森林（Arabuko Sokoke Forest）的土地覆盖发生变化，这里是濒危物种的重要栖息地。为了为高度依赖小规模农业的农村人口提供生计，森林和灌木林地已经变成了农业用地。土地权利不明确和土地获取不平衡导致不受控制的扩张和不安全的生计。有保障的土地权利对于改善当地小农的生活条件至关重要。在肯尼亚东南部靠近马林迪的一个研究区域评估了社会经济和土地保有权条件，以了解人类引起的土地覆盖变化。结合使用生物物理和社会经济方法来确定土地覆盖变化、土地所有权和其他社会经济因素之间的关系。选择地理信息系统 (GIS) 中的分析来检查 1954 年至 2017 年间的历史照片和近期卫星图像土地覆盖变化。该分析结合 2017 年和 2018 年现场进行的定量问卷，以确定影响土地覆盖变化的因素尤其是分析土地使用权对可持续土地利用的影响，以减少进一步的土地转换。此外，本研究使用非参数检验和相关性分析统计调查了土地使用权问题对各个地块的树木种群的影响。我们发现受访者的收入与地块上的树木数量之间存在显着关系。似乎在继承土地的受访者和购买土地的受访者之间，地块上土地覆盖的分割情况有所不同。