The links between climate change, environmental degradation, and conflict are highly complex and poorly understood as yet. Resources always constitute risks of conflict in developing countries, particularly if poverty is widespread, the resource is scarce, and property rights are insecure and/or unclear. Some of these causal factors are manifested in and driving forces behind armed conflicts in Nuba Mountains of Sudan, often with broader geographical, socioeconomic, and political repercussions, displacement of people, and unsustainable use of natural resources. The aim of this study is to raise understanding of the links between patterns of local-level economic and demographic changes of Nuba Mountains region, specifically of those systems in poor condition under environmental change. The methodology applied in the current research is three-pronged: a formal literature review; semi-structured interviews of household heads; and mulit-temporal optical satellite data (i.e. LANDSAT TM and ASTER) to study the land use/land cover changes during the period from 1984 to 2014. The qualitative and quantitative techniques were used to analyze the socio-economic data. Post Classification Analysis (PCA) as well as Post Change Detection (PCD) techniques were applied. The study showed that there are increasingly rapid changes in land cover, social structure, institutional and livelihood transformation across broad areas of the state. More information exchange is needed to inform actors and decision makers regarding specific experiences, capacity gaps and knowledge to address the environmental change.