“Okutambula, kulaba; okudda, kunyumya.” This is a Luganda proverb literally meaning “When one travels, he/she comes back home with experiences and insights to share”. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Uganda Accelerator lab team trekked the forests in the Central, Eastern and Western regions of Uganda in December 2019. This was a solutions safari where we engaged with grassroots communities who live in and around the forests to observe how live in harmony with nature and identify homegrown solutions.

We invited key stakeholders who accompanied us to this journey to help us understand the dynamics of tree species and the level of either degradation or reservation/restoration of forests. These included representatives from National Forestry Authority, Makerere University, Office of the Prime Minister and the UNDP Geographical Information System (GIS) Specialist.

The three regions were chosen because of their differences in responding to deforestation and degradation of forests as well as the different cultural practices. This activity followed a nationwide call for solutions where we gathered over 200 solutions. Going to the field, was to further engage with the grassroot innovators in the communities who were unable to send us their solutions online. Armed with our observation tools, call them capture cards for recording, camera and drone, we embarked on the journey.

Local solutions – Mabira Central Forest Reserve

Found in the central region, Mabira forest is one of Uganda’s largest surviving natural forests covering an area of 306 sq km. Mabira is natural habitat for 312 species of trees, home of 315 species of birds, 218 butterfly species, 97 moth species and 23 small mammal species.

The National Forestry Authority uses Collaborative Forest Management (CFM), a mechanism of allowing the community members to live in harmony with the forests. Members have projects like ecotourism, poultry and piggery.

Mr. Livingstone Ddumba is a father of 10 children and chairperson for Ssese village, one of the enclaves of Mabira forest. He told us that they are highly dependent on the forest as it is where his family gets herbs for healing different ailments since health centers are miles away from them. That inspires them to preserve the indigenous trees in the forest and minimize degradation. He mobilizes his community members to have alternative livelihood projects like poultry and piggery. Ddumba collaborates with National Forestry Authority to curb illegal loggers. Their approach is to live in harmony with the forest as opposed to depleting it.

Local solutions – West Bugwe Forest Reserve

Situated in the Eastern region of Uganda, West Bugwe forest reserve was highly degraded as communities were engaged in charcoal burning, fuel wood collection and farming, leading to deforestation of the forest. The main push factors to the forest reserve were poverty, domestic needs and inadequate land. Collaborative Forest Management was crucial in reducing deforestation in West Bugwe forest reserve. Here communities engage in activities like reforestation and briquettes making as alternative fuel to charcoal burning.

An example is Ms. Betty Ikalany from Soroti District, a local innovator who has trained a group of Teso women in making improved cook stoves and briquettes to not only provide alternative fuel, but also create employment opportunities.

Local solutions – Kyaninga and Kagombe forest reserves

These two forest reserves are found in the Western region of Uganda. While collaborative forest management worked well in other regions, this is not the case in Kagombe forest. It took the law enforcers to enforce the law. A converted illegal logger formed an association that engages community members in activities like beekeeping and fish farming to sustainably live in the forest without depleting it. To further bring on board other community members, Collaborative Forest Management by NFA worked with law enforcers as some community members opposed the collaborative approach and preferred to continue engaging in illegal forest activities.

In Kyaninga, eco-tourism and reforestation are the main activities done with the help of a community-based organization called Kyaninga Forest Foundation.

Data gap

From the review of data, it is evident that there is need for newer and up to date data on deforestation in Uganda. For instance, a report by the Ministry of Water and Environment (2016) says the forest cover stood at 24%, 17%, 13% and 8% in 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2015 respectively which signals persistent decline of forest cover over the years. The rate of deforestation continues to rise owing to population increase, urban demand for charcoal and wood fuel, overgrazing, uncontrolled timber harvesting and policy failures. The National Environment Authority (NEMA) reports that over 90% of the households use wood fuel (charcoal and firewood) for cooking, (NEMA, 2018).

In our engagements to probe further the data gap, we observed that organizations were indeed producing data but there was no harmonizing platform for which everyone could contribute to, in order to inform research and policy. Stakeholders were using tools such as artificial intelligence, satellite imagery and geographical information system (GIS) mapping to produce data on forestry.

There was no ethnographic data on the communities’ interventions to preserve the forests.

Conclusion

As we went about the solutions safari, we quickly learnt that the drivers of deforestation differed from place to place. A collaborative approach to forest management that promotes alternative sources of livelihood as a means of preservation had been well adopted in some areas, while in others, it had not. Whereas enforcement was needed to preserve some natural forests, in other areas people had learnt to live harmoniously with the natural forests. This ignited several questions in our minds: “Does a one-size-fits-all approach work?”, “Can adoption of good practices from one area to another really work?”, “How do we design approaches that fit different sets of people, and work for different cultures?”.