Forests an answer to poverty, environmental degradation
WHEN the Government of Uganda signed up to the eight Millennium Development Goals, it pledged to reduce poverty by half by the year 2015, and ensure environmental sustainability.
By Ambrose Bugaari
WHEN the Government of Uganda signed up to the eight Millennium Development Goals, it pledged to reduce poverty by half by the year 2015, and ensure environmental sustainability.
However, data at the National Forestry Authority indicates that forested land is declining at an increasing rate. Uganda’s forest cover has now reduced from 24% to 15% between 1990 and 2005 and most of the degradation is taking place in forests on private land which have now reduced from 70% in 1990 to 64% in 2007.
This is because the high poverty levels and limited sustainable livelihood options push communities to exert a lot of pressure on forests through unsustainable practices such as poaching and charcoal burning which result in the degradation of the natural resources.
Non-tangible benefits are hardly appreciated by local communities and many find it difficult to maintain forests they do not benefit from.
Therefore, it is important to find not only economically viable, but also ecologically sustainable incentives for managing forests.
Fortunately, there are opportunities for communities to accrue economic benefits from these forests by engaging in forest-based enterprises. Examples of forest-based enterprises being implemented in Uganda include bee-keeping and eco-tourism.
Not only is the number of products that can be obtained from forest-based enterprises huge, but also new opportunities such as carbon trading and payments for environmental services are emerging. These are sources of revenue for local people who are managing their forests sustainably.
Additionally, forest-based enterprises have the potential to generate income and employment for the poor while supporting sustainable management of forest resources. On average, a kilogram of filtered honey now costs sh8,000. Uganda imports more honey than it exports.
The key hypothesis behind forest –based enterprises as a conservation strategy is that if local people directly benefit from a business that depends on forests to deliver its products and services, they should then have the incentive to protect forests against both internal and external threats to their destruction.
For example, if the local people are earning revenues from tourism, it will be in their best interest to make sure that the national parks and other tourist attractions are protected.
In Uganda, there has been an increase in interest and efforts to develop forest based enterprises following the institutionalisation of various community-based forest management programmes such as Collaborative Forest Management (CFM).
Thus, a number of organisations in Uganda such as Environmental Alert, CARE International and private sector companies, such as Effective Skills Development Consultants, have come up to support forest-based enterprises.
Government policies and legislations such as the Forestry Policy (2001) and the Tree Planting and Forestry Act (2003) are supportive of the establishment of forest- based enterprises, but there are limited incentives for local communities to invest in forest-based enterprises.
Yet, for forest-based enterprises to succeed, there is need for the Government to provide incentives and local communities should be assisted to produce for the market and add value to their products.
No farmer will continue to produce what he/she cannot sell unless it is purely for home consumption.
Additionally, for forest-based enterprises to lead to conservation, they must be strategically selected to give a good chance of success, be profitable, marketable and capable of generating significant benefits to local communities. Otherwise, communities will continue to degrade forests as long as they generate more benefits from degrading than conserving them.
The writer is an enterprise development specialist
WHEN the Government of Uganda signed up to the eight Millennium Development Goals, it pledged to reduce poverty by half by the year 2015, and ensure environmental sustainability.
However, data at the National Forestry Authority indicates that forested land is declining at an increasing rate. Uganda’s forest cover has now reduced from 24% to 15% between 1990 and 2005 and most of the degradation is taking place in forests on private land which have now reduced from 70% in 1990 to 64% in 2007.
This is because the high poverty levels and limited sustainable livelihood options push communities to exert a lot of pressure on forests through unsustainable practices such as poaching and charcoal burning which result in the degradation of the natural resources.
Non-tangible benefits are hardly appreciated by local communities and many find it difficult to maintain forests they do not benefit from.
Therefore, it is important to find not only economically viable, but also ecologically sustainable incentives for managing forests.
Fortunately, there are opportunities for communities to accrue economic benefits from these forests by engaging in forest-based enterprises. Examples of forest-based enterprises being implemented in Uganda include bee-keeping and eco-tourism.
Not only is the number of products that can be obtained from forest-based enterprises huge, but also new opportunities such as carbon trading and payments for environmental services are emerging. These are sources of revenue for local people who are managing their forests sustainably.
Additionally, forest-based enterprises have the potential to generate income and employment for the poor while supporting sustainable management of forest resources. On average, a kilogram of filtered honey now costs sh8,000. Uganda imports more honey than it exports.
The key hypothesis behind forest –based enterprises as a conservation strategy is that if local people directly benefit from a business that depends on forests to deliver its products and services, they should then have the incentive to protect forests against both internal and external threats to their destruction.
For example, if the local people are earning revenues from tourism, it will be in their best interest to make sure that the national parks and other tourist attractions are protected.
In Uganda, there has been an increase in interest and efforts to develop forest based enterprises following the institutionalisation of various community-based forest management programmes such as Collaborative Forest Management (CFM).
Thus, a number of organisations in Uganda such as Environmental Alert, CARE International and private sector companies, such as Effective Skills Development Consultants, have come up to support forest-based enterprises.
Government policies and legislations such as the Forestry Policy (2001) and the Tree Planting and Forestry Act (2003) are supportive of the establishment of forest- based enterprises, but there are limited incentives for local communities to invest in forest-based enterprises.
Yet, for forest-based enterprises to succeed, there is need for the Government to provide incentives and local communities should be assisted to produce for the market and add value to their products.
No farmer will continue to produce what he/she cannot sell unless it is purely for home consumption.
Additionally, for forest-based enterprises to lead to conservation, they must be strategically selected to give a good chance of success, be profitable, marketable and capable of generating significant benefits to local communities. Otherwise, communities will continue to degrade forests as long as they generate more benefits from degrading than conserving them.
The writer is an enterprise development specialist