Abstract:
Forest product exploitation remain a challenge impacting on the global environment. The study established forest product exploitation and its effect on the environmental in Kasese district, Uganda. It specifically assessed factors influencing forest product exploitation, examined effect of forest product exploitation on the environment, and analyzed approaches to mitigate forest product exploitation in Ibanda parish. The study employed a cross-sectional survey designed using both qualitative and quantitative data collection approaches. It targeted a population of 1000 people from whom 286 were determined using Slovene’s formula. Simple random and purposive sampling techniques were employed to select the participants in the study. Data was collected through Interview, questionnaire, and later data was analyzed using SPSS version 26 to generate descriptive statistics for analysis. The findings revealed that expanding for farmland, logging, urbanization /industrialization and infrastructure and fires were key factors influencing forest product exploitation. Further, findings shown climate change 35%, and soil resources loss and flooding, water 17.5%, decrease in biodiversity, habitant loss and conflicts 23.1%, economic losses 14%, and social consequences 10.5% as the environmental effects of forest product exploitation. Lastly, results indicated that collaboration (44%), followed by awareness (27.9%) and sensitization (20.9%) law and policy (6.9%) were the approaches to challenges from forest product exploitation. Conclusively, forest product exploitation cause environmental effects which are detrimental to community. The study recommended that government should strengthen laws on environmental protection and conservation the environment, sensitize masses about the importance of forest, use community resource management approach in conserving the forest ecosystem and implement environmental conservation laws and policies and ensure that forests are protected from encroachers especially man and his activities
