Abdulkadir, Mohamed Ramiah2026-01-172026-01-172024https://www.suaire.sua.ac.tz/handle/20.500.14820/7232DissertationForest Landscape restoration is a global imperative, addressing ecological, social, and climate challenges. In Africa's drylands, FAO identifies a critical need to restore 221 million hectares. In response, African nations, including Tanzania, pledged through the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100) to restore 5.2 million hectares by 2030. However, the historical deforestation and degradation caused by illegal logging, agriculture expansion, and fires persist. In 2008, Tanzania government evict farmers from the Bunduki gap to enhance biological connectivity within the Uluguru nature forest reserve. Despite this, studies on the progress and composition of land cover at Bunduki post-eviction are scarce. Such information is crucial for justifying and supporting ongoing restoration initiatives amid global demands for sustainable forest management and climate change mitigation. Therefore this study assesses pre and post-eviction land cover changes at the Bunduki gap using high-resolution satellite images (Quickbird 2005, Worldview 2011, Pleiades 2017). Employing supervised image classification with a random forest algorithm on Google Earth Engine, assesses classification accuracy, analyzes changes in land cover classes, tracks their persistence and trajectories, and examines spatial distribution for the periods 2005- 2011 and 2011-2017. Vegetation composition was evaluated in terms of species richness, Important value index, diversity indices (Shannon and Simpson’s), and hierarchical clustering, while structural characteristics were analyzed in terms of diameter class distribution across forest part. The pre and post-eviction land cover assessment reveals dynamic transformations in the study area between 2005, 2011, and 2017. Forest coverage increased from 1.74% in 2005 to 51.80% in 2017, while bushland, grassland, and bare land exhibited contrasting trends. The main result is the replacement of bare land, grassland, and bushland by forest land cover. The rate of this replacement differs temporally and spatially across the gap. Vegetation composition analysis revealed 1,149 individuals representing 94 species, 47 families, and 89 genera. The majority of species (52.13%) were common across all forest part, with the Bunduki Gap exhibiting 25.53% unique species. Three distinct communities were identified, displaying significant differences (R=0.64, P<0.005), although no significance difference was observed in diversity indices (P>0.005). Diameter class distribution of the shared and unique species with high importance value index varies significantly across forest part (P < 0.0438), with higher diameter classes prevailing in Uluguru North and South, and lower and medium classes more prevalent in the Bunduki Gap, albeit with fewer instances in Uluguru North and South respectively. The study concludes there is successful forest recovery post eviction and there are similarities in emerged plant species across the forest part with varying diameter distributions, the presence of unique species and distinct communities underscores the imperative for further investigation to mitigate the spread of invasive species within the reserveenLand cover changeConservation MonitoringBiological connectivitySpecies diversityEvictionsThesis