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Sustainable Harvesting of Forestry Based Products As A Means of Rural Employment Creation And Environmental Conservation In Uganda
This blog discusses the struggle to survive by rural Ugandans against nature that they need to conserve for future generations to come.
This is against global concerns about climate change and emissions into the atmosphere that cannot be controlled by big industries.
Rural Ugandans realized that they need associations to build critical mass to exploit the only available natural resource for supplementing income from subsistence farming
The term ‘association’ is used quite loosely in Uganda, and does not always infer the same legal status. Associations may be formed under the Companies Act registered as Limited Liability Companies or Non Governmental Organizations but typically established as not-for-profit companies and organizations. Community-based associations may also register with the District Community Development Worker. These do not have a legal structure, nor do they have the status of a body corporate but are recognized by government. In this paper, the term is used generally to apply to all the forms of associations.
The importance of forest based associations is principally identified as ensuring environmental sustainability (MDG7) and meeting the government of Uganda’s key objectives as enshrined in the National Forest Plan. The associations increase real income in the informal forest sector activities by promoting economic activities of informal harvesters and users of forest products through outreach from government agencies, civil society organizations, certification organizations and regulatory frameworks. They create incentives for conservation and sustainable management of forest resources in Uganda. According to the Government of Uganda, the key to poverty alleviation and sustainable forest management lies with those stakeholder groups that are involved in production, utilization and processing of forest produce which prompted policy actions of setting up the National Tree Fund, Uganda Forestry Policy and National Forestry and Tree Planting Act 2003 and reviews of taxes and other incentives so that forest based stakeholders can be organized and guided to become viable institutions that will engage in pro poor development initiatives. Stakeholders identified in this paper will fall in the following general categories:
• Nursery Operators
• Woodlot planters
• Agro Forestry
• Harvesters of craft materials
• Harvesters and processors of charcoal and fuel wood
• Timber Harvesters
• Ecotourism
• Bee Keeping
In Uganda, forest based associations spread across five broad categories of activities ranked in order of numerical importance as below:
• Forest production
• Primary processing
• Forest based services
• Secondary processing
• Ecotourism
Many of these loose groupings are small rural community based associations providing their membership with social security or self help, act as a platform for negotiation and recognition, information provision, policy advocacy and regulatory reforms. The concept of forest associations becomes potentially valuable in providing a focal point for policy discussions, communication between stakeholders, environmental conservation and activities that increase forestry resources and develop sustainable forestry and contribution to economic development. There is no doubt that forest associations can be used as engines for social economic development if the interventions below could be implemented:
• providing training and capacity building to existing associations
• linking existing forestry associations to programs and service providers for capacity building
• using tools to form and build capacity of more commercially oriented forestry
• linking associations to commercial partners and supporting organizations that can help them build new products and link them to new markets
• organizing and assisting producer associations to give them stronger bargaining power and to gather and share market information
• advising forestry associations to understand the importance of grouping to access external finance
• lobbying banks and MFIs to understand and support forestry investments
• exploring the potential of associations and setting standards to ensure that associations and their members look after the welfare of their employees
• bringing forestry associations together to explore the potential for
establishing one or more umbrella associations in key sub-sectors such as tree planting, charcoal production, timber harvesting, forest product development and so on
History of the Trees and Tree Products Associations
These associations have a long history in rural Uganda, performing a number of important roles in rural communities, such as shared-labor pools, savings and loans groups, and ‘trouble funds’ that provide for those members when in urgent need. All these build social capital to overcome a number of the typical stresses of poverty and are specifically acknowledged as a key to rural mobilization.In some cases, such as the community tourism associations, it is the association that is the enterprise, with members being the ‘shareholders’, providing the labor and the management.
In terms of their geographical scope, their level of formalization and their objectives – from those focusing primarily on social welfare of its members to those entrepreneurs who collaborate to achieve some commercial advantage in a competitive market.
Broadly, associations are found to be engaged in five main categories of activities. The majority are in production-related activities. Production involves tree planting, nursery establishment and agro-forestry activities. Under primary processing, there are pit sawyers and saw millers, harvesters of non-wood forest products (NWFP), firewood collectors, charcoal burners, producers of craft materials such as rattan, and collectors of medicinal herbs and honey. The forest-based service providers were engaged in forest management and utilization training, participatory forest management support, craftwork training, credit, marketing and advocacy. Under secondary processing, there were traders of timber, charcoal, poles, rattan and carpentry workshops and builders. Forest-based services involve eco-tourism and carbon sequestration. According to Auren & Krassowska (2004), there are about 5,000 forest-based associations in Uganda.
The reason why tree planting dominates is because conservation agencies and agricultural development programs have supported farm forestry through associations as an alternative for products that were being harvested in protected areas and to reduce the time spent collecting firewood. This is true around Bwindi Impenetrable and Mgahinga National Parks where CARE has been working since late 1980s. It is also true around Kibale, Semliki and Mt. Elgon National Parks where IUCN has built the capacities of CBOs for conservation. The demand for fuel energy and poles for building also made many associations go into tree planting particularly after 1990.
Presently, as much as 94% of energy demand nationwide is met from biomass. Some international and local NGOs such as Living Incorporated,6 VI Agro forestry Project, Uganda Women Tree Planting Movement, Environmental Alert and ECOTRUST boast of poverty alleviation among rural communities through support to tree planting. However, these organizations have not used that evidence to lobby for more support to forest-based associations. Before 1990, people would gather poles and to some extent firewood from forest reserves. In 1991 and 1992, the reserves were elevated and declared National Parks whereby utilization was either stopped or greatly curtailed. This compelled the users to plant their own trees in associations. Forest reserves that fall into this category were: Mount Rwenzori, Mgahinga, Bwindi Impenetrable, Kibale, Elgon and Semliki. Traditional herbalists also joined forces to plant species of medicinal values to control for harvests. Agro-forestry was attractive in areas such as Kabale and Rukungiri where international NGOs such as ICRAF, AFRENA and CARE are supporting associations to replenish loss of soil nutrients due to over cultivation. In some places, tree planting is linked to area-based commercial activities. Arua, for example, is a tobacco-growing district where fuel-wood is needed to cure tobacco, thus creating a big market for fuel-wood.
Forest-based service providing associations have increased in the last five years under the auspices of National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) of the Plan for the Modernization of Agriculture. NAADS offers contracts for extension services to associations, private consultancy firms and individuals. NAADS is a long term, multi donor funded program in support of PEAP, grounded in the Uganda government’s overarching policies of decentralization, liberalization and increased participation of the people in governance. The legitimacy of NAADS is given by the National Agricultural Advisory Services Act, 2004.
Achievements
General achievements
The associations’ ability to meet members’ expectations has acted as catalyst in motivating more new entrants than those exiting. Those exiting had expectations for short-run tangible benefits, which are not typical in forestry activities such as tree planting, agro-forestry etc. To the policy makers, the message is very simple, namely that in the absence of institutionalized incentives, social capital within associations is a big asset in enabling the poor to manage change.
Associations have created enabling environment for broadening members’ benefits, and strengthening their collective voice. For example, it has already been demonstrated that some of the associations with high annual turnover had received external support.
Financial incentives for promoting good policies in environmental and natural resource management were legitimized under several laws such as the National Environment Act 1995 and National Forestry and Tree Planting Act 2003. Under the European Union funded Forest Resource Management and Conservation Program (FRMCP) 2002-2006, a grant of € 1.92 Million was provided to support long term tree planting, that is, for species such as pine and cypress which mature at 20 years by the private sector. The design of the so called Saw Log Production Grant Scheme (SPGS), includes a number of strict standards, among others, setting the minimum area of 25 hectares for any person to qualify for a 50% cost recovery of the establishment cost (about Ug Sh 600,000 per hectare – equivalent to US$ 350). This was a barrier to the marginalized associations whose capital available was too low to reach this standard.
Impacts
Uganda Honey Association (UHA) is a national apex body in the apiculture sector in Uganda, which was formed in 1995. The main aim of the association is to promote the development of beekeeping in Uganda. The association is composed of over 80 primary societies and community groups with a membership of over 5,015 beekeepers. A 13-member executive board, four of whom work fulltime for the association, leads the association.
UHA offices are located at Nalukolongo, Industrial Area, Kampala. The UHA honey facility is also located there. The main activity of the association is to train beekeepers throughout Uganda to produce top quality honey for the local and export markets. Honey and wax are processed in the Nalukolongo honey refinery, which is set up with the latest equipment. UHA received assistance from Uganda’s USAID Agri-Business Development Centre (ADC) through the Investment in Developing Export Agriculture Project (IDEA project). Uganda Honey Beekeepers Association is currently running Nakasongola Apiculture Centre (NAC) funded by the German government at € 111,000. It began operation in June 2003. NAC was founded in November 1997. It is intended for the management and utilization of honeybees (Apis mellifera) for enhanced food security, incomes, and improved standards of
living, especially of vulnerable groups (women, youths, disabled, the landless, the poor, etc.), the majority of whom live in rural areas. The centre stresses the conservation and protection of natural resources for enhanced productivity, and economic returns to small-scale bee farmers at household levels. It is however hoped that when the centre is fully developed, it will be in position to house the regional secretariat for the proposed beekeeping association for the East African region, among other activities.
Budongo Forest Conservation and Development Organization (BUCODO) is an association of 41 community-based associations and business associations located around the southern part of Budongo Forest Reserve, Masindi. The interests of member organizations are diverse, ranging from clearly commercial interests (for example the Budongo Pit sawyers’ association) to the more socially oriented community-based associations working on community health and education.
BUCODO is owned by its member organizations. The board and the executive are elected from the member community associations. The organization has grown so large that it has now subdivided into seven sectors, based on different specific interests (such as beekeeping, pit sawing, medicinal plant production and essential oil extraction, craftwork, and community workers providing advisory services to farmers, communities and private forest owners).
BUCODO has clearly achieved results for its members, for example
• mobilizing resources for members (donor and government funds)
• raising key issues relating to forest administration that are then presented to government through advocacy by BUCODO executive
• capacity building of members in a wide range of skills
• networking between sectors of the organization
• creating a strong sense of ownership by community members
• introducing new income generating activities (such as medicinal plant cultivation and extraction of essential oils), and supported members of the Budongo Pit sawyers Association to access licenses. Increasingly, the role of the former “Pit sawyers’ Associations” is being integrated into such CFM associations – with the objective of assisting local community members to access licenses to harvest timber and other forest products as part of a broader negotiated agreement on community-supported forest management. NFA has shown some willingness to take affirmative action to give local community members preferential treatment in accessing such licenses, over and above the competitive bidding process they have put in place for other more commercial timber harvesters.
The success of BUCODO has been the role model for the formation of a flurry of new CFM Umbrella Organizations in other areas:
• North Budongo Forest Community Association (NOBUFOCA)
• Budongo Forest Conservation and Development Organization (BUCODO)
• Friends of Mpigi Area Forest (FOMAF)
• Mabira Forest Integrated Conservation Organization (MAFICO)
• Sango Bay CFM Association (emerging but not yet formalized).
Typically, the Forest Department (and now the NFA) have catalyzed the formation of these groups, and helped them link with sources of external assistance from NGOs, donors and government programs. The new EMPAFORM (Empowerment for Participatory Forest Management) Project of CARE is focusing on working with such umbrella organizations, both to strengthen them and their members in collaborative management. The Forest Act also provides for Community Forestry, which gives the opportunity for Communal Land Associations, as provided under the Land Act, to enter legal contracts with resource users and other stakeholders which empower them to register ownership of forests on communally owned land. Again, BUCODO and a few other NGOs (Environmental Alert) have piloted Community Forestry and the associated service provision needed to support its evolution in Masindi and Luweero Districts. The Private Forest Owners involved have recognized the importance of association to access
support, and this has been one of the key stimuli in the formation of Kitara Green Associates – one of the only known associations of Private Forest Owners, in Masindi District. Similar groupings have formed, for example in the Fisheries Sector, where government has established Beach Management Units (BMUs) to institutionalize co-management with the fisher folk under the Fish (Beach Management) Rules, 2003 No. 35, and is also supporting Lake-wide Assemblies (associations of BMUs and other commercial interests) to bring together all stakeholders for fisheries resource management planning and implementation. The Lake-wide Assemblies have yet to take off, due largely to lack of resources to meet and operate on a regular basis.
The evolution of these hierarchies of community-based, but clearly commercially oriented institutions in the fisheries sector would not have been possible without the external support from DFID in the case of Lake George9 and World Bank/GEF and African Development Bank in the case of Lake Victoria.
Within the provision of Uganda Wildlife Statute 1996, the communities around BINP negotiated an MoU in 2002 with UWA under which the association set itself to:
• protect and conserve BINP resources through sharing of responsibilities with other interested partners in the management of utilized resources obtained from the park
• negotiate access for resources from the BINP and participate in developing a system to ensure that resource utilization is sustainable
• improve on the communication between the national park staff and the community and act as an information link with other interested partners in the park resources
• collaborate with the UWA-BINP staff and Community Protected Area Committee (CPAC) in finding ways of reducing illegal activities done in the park. Under the MoU, the responsibilities of the members of the Executive Committee made of Chairperson, Secretary, Treasurer, and Vice Chairperson are defined. The MoU also incorporates aspects of governance including the holding of meetings by the association, the frequency of meetings, voting rights, and handling of conflicts. In addition the MoU defines the bye-laws governing various categories of resource users, that is, herbalists and basket makers.
National Forestry and Tree Planting Act, 2003, provides that “a responsible body may enter into a collaborative forest management arrangement with a forest user group for the purpose of managing a central or local forest reserve or part of it in accordance with regulations. On the basis of such legitimacy, formally recognized community associations and farmer groups (registered with the local government under the provisions of the NAADS Act) have entered into collaborative forest management agreements with the National Forestry Authority (NFA). Several other agreements are about to be signed for the management of Budongo Forest Reserve, and for Reserves in Sango Bay, Rakai District among others.
The Uganda Community Tourism Association (UCOTA) was established in July 1998, to empower local communities in sustainable development through small-scale tourism and handcraft enterprises, also known as Community Tourism. Community Tourism aims at involving the local people in the planning, decision-making and implementation of tourism development activities. This form of tourism assures that the benefits stay as much as possible in the local community. To date UCOTA has grown into 50 member-groups countrywide, representing about 1200 individuals of whom 63% are women and 37% men. The groups operate small enterprises ranging from accommodation, guiding services, and restaurants to craft shops and music, dance and drama performances. Most of the groups fund a community project, such as clinics, schools, water sources and literacy program. It also reins them in several aspects such as tourism marketing, craft-making and organizational strengthening.
Challenges
Government Policy Challenges
Associations need support for policy awareness programs and development of capacity to influence policy formulation and implementation.
Inclusion of forestry as fundable activities by micro-finance institutions who do not have policies that finance the sector.
Simplification of taxation especially for associations involved in forest produce extraction and processing.
Designing pro-poor policies given that the sector is the principal source of rural employment and income generation.
Simplification of registration to enable the establishment of as many groupings as possible
Standardization of prices based on market research especially for honey and timber even if the economy is based on market forces
Institutional challenges
Capacity building
To ensure long term sustainability of associations, priority needs to be put on the following;
• comprehensive institutional and capacity building program support
• training in entrepreneurial development,
• strengthening partnerships with research institutions, and
• improving access to low-cost technologies
Financing
Most members of the associations are unable to access funding for expansion
Accreditation
Most associations require accreditation to enable influencing of policy on a common platform
Quality control
The quality of products produced is of substandard quality which affects sales
Lessons Learnt
National Umbrella organizations
Associations are affiliated to different organizations depending on their type of activity and/or location. The leading institutions mentioned were local governments, NFA, UWA, CARE and NAADS and other international NGOs such as African Wildlife Foundation, International Gorilla Conservation Program, Institute of Tropical Forest Conservation, were found to have long history of support to associations around the ecosystems of Bwindi Impenetrable and Mgahinga National Parks in South Western Uganda. In part, they provided support to make their own work easier and sustainable.
Uganda Bee-keepers Association, a national umbrella association, supports several associations countrywide. The National Council of Traditional Healers and Herbalists Association is also an umbrella association. It supports associations/groups in traditional medicine. Likewise, Uganda Community Tourism Association is supporting local associations participating in tourism activities in forests and parks. It relies largely on external support to be able to operate, rather than on membership fees and as yet has not had significant impact on craft export sales, although this is one of the key areas of intervention by UCOTA. To some extent, this is due to the NGO nature of the Association – it does not have substantial entrepreneurial or business management expertise within its ranks. These umbrella associations take on a theme around which their membership is identified, e.g. tourism, herbal medicine, beekeeping, shea-butter, etc. Thus, by working with and through such umbrella associations, government would cost effectively reach out to the poor. Field lessons could sharpen the policy environment for sustainable development. For example in the water sector, the UWASNET, an umbrella association of water and sanitation NGOs, has influenced government to include and promote water harvesting. Accordingly, the donors into the Water Sector Fund have started to support water-harvesting initiatives. Hitherto, rainwater was not looked at as a resource, perhaps not until it reached a river, a lake or reservoir. In forestry, the pilot projects on collaborative forest management (CFM) influenced the acceptance of CFM in the Uganda Forestry Policy and National Forestry & Tree Planting Act, 2003.
Affiliated associations were able to access support ranging from technical assistance, financing, material, political will, land and licensing.
Observations
The lack of dynamic development of the forestry sector in Uganda is seen both as the cause and the consequence of the disorganized nature of its key players. This can be addressed by supporting better organization of the sector as the priority area as fragmentation underlies most other factors affecting forestry associations.
A wealth of organizational structures and forms that are based on family ties, clan, lineage, proximity or ethnic groupings exists. These groups can be
viable forums through which government can begin to engage with rural communities.
At the national level, the failure of forest associations to cluster, organize or link up effectively is resulting in lost opportunities in policy advocacy, product development, sharing market information, expanding to new markets, developing market standards and taking advantage of training and support offered by government or donor funded initiatives.
This is against global concerns about climate change and emissions into the atmosphere that cannot be controlled by big industries.
Rural Ugandans realized that they need associations to build critical mass to exploit the only available natural resource for supplementing income from subsistence farming
The term ‘association’ is used quite loosely in Uganda, and does not always infer the same legal status. Associations may be formed under the Companies Act registered as Limited Liability Companies or Non Governmental Organizations but typically established as not-for-profit companies and organizations. Community-based associations may also register with the District Community Development Worker. These do not have a legal structure, nor do they have the status of a body corporate but are recognized by government. In this paper, the term is used generally to apply to all the forms of associations.
The importance of forest based associations is principally identified as ensuring environmental sustainability (MDG7) and meeting the government of Uganda’s key objectives as enshrined in the National Forest Plan. The associations increase real income in the informal forest sector activities by promoting economic activities of informal harvesters and users of forest products through outreach from government agencies, civil society organizations, certification organizations and regulatory frameworks. They create incentives for conservation and sustainable management of forest resources in Uganda. According to the Government of Uganda, the key to poverty alleviation and sustainable forest management lies with those stakeholder groups that are involved in production, utilization and processing of forest produce which prompted policy actions of setting up the National Tree Fund, Uganda Forestry Policy and National Forestry and Tree Planting Act 2003 and reviews of taxes and other incentives so that forest based stakeholders can be organized and guided to become viable institutions that will engage in pro poor development initiatives. Stakeholders identified in this paper will fall in the following general categories:
• Nursery Operators
• Woodlot planters
• Agro Forestry
• Harvesters of craft materials
• Harvesters and processors of charcoal and fuel wood
• Timber Harvesters
• Ecotourism
• Bee Keeping
In Uganda, forest based associations spread across five broad categories of activities ranked in order of numerical importance as below:
• Forest production
• Primary processing
• Forest based services
• Secondary processing
• Ecotourism
Many of these loose groupings are small rural community based associations providing their membership with social security or self help, act as a platform for negotiation and recognition, information provision, policy advocacy and regulatory reforms. The concept of forest associations becomes potentially valuable in providing a focal point for policy discussions, communication between stakeholders, environmental conservation and activities that increase forestry resources and develop sustainable forestry and contribution to economic development. There is no doubt that forest associations can be used as engines for social economic development if the interventions below could be implemented:
• providing training and capacity building to existing associations
• linking existing forestry associations to programs and service providers for capacity building
• using tools to form and build capacity of more commercially oriented forestry
• linking associations to commercial partners and supporting organizations that can help them build new products and link them to new markets
• organizing and assisting producer associations to give them stronger bargaining power and to gather and share market information
• advising forestry associations to understand the importance of grouping to access external finance
• lobbying banks and MFIs to understand and support forestry investments
• exploring the potential of associations and setting standards to ensure that associations and their members look after the welfare of their employees
• bringing forestry associations together to explore the potential for
establishing one or more umbrella associations in key sub-sectors such as tree planting, charcoal production, timber harvesting, forest product development and so on
History of the Trees and Tree Products Associations
These associations have a long history in rural Uganda, performing a number of important roles in rural communities, such as shared-labor pools, savings and loans groups, and ‘trouble funds’ that provide for those members when in urgent need. All these build social capital to overcome a number of the typical stresses of poverty and are specifically acknowledged as a key to rural mobilization.In some cases, such as the community tourism associations, it is the association that is the enterprise, with members being the ‘shareholders’, providing the labor and the management.
In terms of their geographical scope, their level of formalization and their objectives – from those focusing primarily on social welfare of its members to those entrepreneurs who collaborate to achieve some commercial advantage in a competitive market.
Broadly, associations are found to be engaged in five main categories of activities. The majority are in production-related activities. Production involves tree planting, nursery establishment and agro-forestry activities. Under primary processing, there are pit sawyers and saw millers, harvesters of non-wood forest products (NWFP), firewood collectors, charcoal burners, producers of craft materials such as rattan, and collectors of medicinal herbs and honey. The forest-based service providers were engaged in forest management and utilization training, participatory forest management support, craftwork training, credit, marketing and advocacy. Under secondary processing, there were traders of timber, charcoal, poles, rattan and carpentry workshops and builders. Forest-based services involve eco-tourism and carbon sequestration. According to Auren & Krassowska (2004), there are about 5,000 forest-based associations in Uganda.
The reason why tree planting dominates is because conservation agencies and agricultural development programs have supported farm forestry through associations as an alternative for products that were being harvested in protected areas and to reduce the time spent collecting firewood. This is true around Bwindi Impenetrable and Mgahinga National Parks where CARE has been working since late 1980s. It is also true around Kibale, Semliki and Mt. Elgon National Parks where IUCN has built the capacities of CBOs for conservation. The demand for fuel energy and poles for building also made many associations go into tree planting particularly after 1990.
Presently, as much as 94% of energy demand nationwide is met from biomass. Some international and local NGOs such as Living Incorporated,6 VI Agro forestry Project, Uganda Women Tree Planting Movement, Environmental Alert and ECOTRUST boast of poverty alleviation among rural communities through support to tree planting. However, these organizations have not used that evidence to lobby for more support to forest-based associations. Before 1990, people would gather poles and to some extent firewood from forest reserves. In 1991 and 1992, the reserves were elevated and declared National Parks whereby utilization was either stopped or greatly curtailed. This compelled the users to plant their own trees in associations. Forest reserves that fall into this category were: Mount Rwenzori, Mgahinga, Bwindi Impenetrable, Kibale, Elgon and Semliki. Traditional herbalists also joined forces to plant species of medicinal values to control for harvests. Agro-forestry was attractive in areas such as Kabale and Rukungiri where international NGOs such as ICRAF, AFRENA and CARE are supporting associations to replenish loss of soil nutrients due to over cultivation. In some places, tree planting is linked to area-based commercial activities. Arua, for example, is a tobacco-growing district where fuel-wood is needed to cure tobacco, thus creating a big market for fuel-wood.
Forest-based service providing associations have increased in the last five years under the auspices of National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) of the Plan for the Modernization of Agriculture. NAADS offers contracts for extension services to associations, private consultancy firms and individuals. NAADS is a long term, multi donor funded program in support of PEAP, grounded in the Uganda government’s overarching policies of decentralization, liberalization and increased participation of the people in governance. The legitimacy of NAADS is given by the National Agricultural Advisory Services Act, 2004.
Achievements
General achievements
The associations’ ability to meet members’ expectations has acted as catalyst in motivating more new entrants than those exiting. Those exiting had expectations for short-run tangible benefits, which are not typical in forestry activities such as tree planting, agro-forestry etc. To the policy makers, the message is very simple, namely that in the absence of institutionalized incentives, social capital within associations is a big asset in enabling the poor to manage change.
Associations have created enabling environment for broadening members’ benefits, and strengthening their collective voice. For example, it has already been demonstrated that some of the associations with high annual turnover had received external support.
Financial incentives for promoting good policies in environmental and natural resource management were legitimized under several laws such as the National Environment Act 1995 and National Forestry and Tree Planting Act 2003. Under the European Union funded Forest Resource Management and Conservation Program (FRMCP) 2002-2006, a grant of € 1.92 Million was provided to support long term tree planting, that is, for species such as pine and cypress which mature at 20 years by the private sector. The design of the so called Saw Log Production Grant Scheme (SPGS), includes a number of strict standards, among others, setting the minimum area of 25 hectares for any person to qualify for a 50% cost recovery of the establishment cost (about Ug Sh 600,000 per hectare – equivalent to US$ 350). This was a barrier to the marginalized associations whose capital available was too low to reach this standard.
Impacts
Uganda Honey Association (UHA) is a national apex body in the apiculture sector in Uganda, which was formed in 1995. The main aim of the association is to promote the development of beekeeping in Uganda. The association is composed of over 80 primary societies and community groups with a membership of over 5,015 beekeepers. A 13-member executive board, four of whom work fulltime for the association, leads the association.
UHA offices are located at Nalukolongo, Industrial Area, Kampala. The UHA honey facility is also located there. The main activity of the association is to train beekeepers throughout Uganda to produce top quality honey for the local and export markets. Honey and wax are processed in the Nalukolongo honey refinery, which is set up with the latest equipment. UHA received assistance from Uganda’s USAID Agri-Business Development Centre (ADC) through the Investment in Developing Export Agriculture Project (IDEA project). Uganda Honey Beekeepers Association is currently running Nakasongola Apiculture Centre (NAC) funded by the German government at € 111,000. It began operation in June 2003. NAC was founded in November 1997. It is intended for the management and utilization of honeybees (Apis mellifera) for enhanced food security, incomes, and improved standards of
living, especially of vulnerable groups (women, youths, disabled, the landless, the poor, etc.), the majority of whom live in rural areas. The centre stresses the conservation and protection of natural resources for enhanced productivity, and economic returns to small-scale bee farmers at household levels. It is however hoped that when the centre is fully developed, it will be in position to house the regional secretariat for the proposed beekeeping association for the East African region, among other activities.
Budongo Forest Conservation and Development Organization (BUCODO) is an association of 41 community-based associations and business associations located around the southern part of Budongo Forest Reserve, Masindi. The interests of member organizations are diverse, ranging from clearly commercial interests (for example the Budongo Pit sawyers’ association) to the more socially oriented community-based associations working on community health and education.
BUCODO is owned by its member organizations. The board and the executive are elected from the member community associations. The organization has grown so large that it has now subdivided into seven sectors, based on different specific interests (such as beekeeping, pit sawing, medicinal plant production and essential oil extraction, craftwork, and community workers providing advisory services to farmers, communities and private forest owners).
BUCODO has clearly achieved results for its members, for example
• mobilizing resources for members (donor and government funds)
• raising key issues relating to forest administration that are then presented to government through advocacy by BUCODO executive
• capacity building of members in a wide range of skills
• networking between sectors of the organization
• creating a strong sense of ownership by community members
• introducing new income generating activities (such as medicinal plant cultivation and extraction of essential oils), and supported members of the Budongo Pit sawyers Association to access licenses. Increasingly, the role of the former “Pit sawyers’ Associations” is being integrated into such CFM associations – with the objective of assisting local community members to access licenses to harvest timber and other forest products as part of a broader negotiated agreement on community-supported forest management. NFA has shown some willingness to take affirmative action to give local community members preferential treatment in accessing such licenses, over and above the competitive bidding process they have put in place for other more commercial timber harvesters.
The success of BUCODO has been the role model for the formation of a flurry of new CFM Umbrella Organizations in other areas:
• North Budongo Forest Community Association (NOBUFOCA)
• Budongo Forest Conservation and Development Organization (BUCODO)
• Friends of Mpigi Area Forest (FOMAF)
• Mabira Forest Integrated Conservation Organization (MAFICO)
• Sango Bay CFM Association (emerging but not yet formalized).
Typically, the Forest Department (and now the NFA) have catalyzed the formation of these groups, and helped them link with sources of external assistance from NGOs, donors and government programs. The new EMPAFORM (Empowerment for Participatory Forest Management) Project of CARE is focusing on working with such umbrella organizations, both to strengthen them and their members in collaborative management. The Forest Act also provides for Community Forestry, which gives the opportunity for Communal Land Associations, as provided under the Land Act, to enter legal contracts with resource users and other stakeholders which empower them to register ownership of forests on communally owned land. Again, BUCODO and a few other NGOs (Environmental Alert) have piloted Community Forestry and the associated service provision needed to support its evolution in Masindi and Luweero Districts. The Private Forest Owners involved have recognized the importance of association to access
support, and this has been one of the key stimuli in the formation of Kitara Green Associates – one of the only known associations of Private Forest Owners, in Masindi District. Similar groupings have formed, for example in the Fisheries Sector, where government has established Beach Management Units (BMUs) to institutionalize co-management with the fisher folk under the Fish (Beach Management) Rules, 2003 No. 35, and is also supporting Lake-wide Assemblies (associations of BMUs and other commercial interests) to bring together all stakeholders for fisheries resource management planning and implementation. The Lake-wide Assemblies have yet to take off, due largely to lack of resources to meet and operate on a regular basis.
The evolution of these hierarchies of community-based, but clearly commercially oriented institutions in the fisheries sector would not have been possible without the external support from DFID in the case of Lake George9 and World Bank/GEF and African Development Bank in the case of Lake Victoria.
Within the provision of Uganda Wildlife Statute 1996, the communities around BINP negotiated an MoU in 2002 with UWA under which the association set itself to:
• protect and conserve BINP resources through sharing of responsibilities with other interested partners in the management of utilized resources obtained from the park
• negotiate access for resources from the BINP and participate in developing a system to ensure that resource utilization is sustainable
• improve on the communication between the national park staff and the community and act as an information link with other interested partners in the park resources
• collaborate with the UWA-BINP staff and Community Protected Area Committee (CPAC) in finding ways of reducing illegal activities done in the park. Under the MoU, the responsibilities of the members of the Executive Committee made of Chairperson, Secretary, Treasurer, and Vice Chairperson are defined. The MoU also incorporates aspects of governance including the holding of meetings by the association, the frequency of meetings, voting rights, and handling of conflicts. In addition the MoU defines the bye-laws governing various categories of resource users, that is, herbalists and basket makers.
National Forestry and Tree Planting Act, 2003, provides that “a responsible body may enter into a collaborative forest management arrangement with a forest user group for the purpose of managing a central or local forest reserve or part of it in accordance with regulations. On the basis of such legitimacy, formally recognized community associations and farmer groups (registered with the local government under the provisions of the NAADS Act) have entered into collaborative forest management agreements with the National Forestry Authority (NFA). Several other agreements are about to be signed for the management of Budongo Forest Reserve, and for Reserves in Sango Bay, Rakai District among others.
The Uganda Community Tourism Association (UCOTA) was established in July 1998, to empower local communities in sustainable development through small-scale tourism and handcraft enterprises, also known as Community Tourism. Community Tourism aims at involving the local people in the planning, decision-making and implementation of tourism development activities. This form of tourism assures that the benefits stay as much as possible in the local community. To date UCOTA has grown into 50 member-groups countrywide, representing about 1200 individuals of whom 63% are women and 37% men. The groups operate small enterprises ranging from accommodation, guiding services, and restaurants to craft shops and music, dance and drama performances. Most of the groups fund a community project, such as clinics, schools, water sources and literacy program. It also reins them in several aspects such as tourism marketing, craft-making and organizational strengthening.
Challenges
Government Policy Challenges
Associations need support for policy awareness programs and development of capacity to influence policy formulation and implementation.
Inclusion of forestry as fundable activities by micro-finance institutions who do not have policies that finance the sector.
Simplification of taxation especially for associations involved in forest produce extraction and processing.
Designing pro-poor policies given that the sector is the principal source of rural employment and income generation.
Simplification of registration to enable the establishment of as many groupings as possible
Standardization of prices based on market research especially for honey and timber even if the economy is based on market forces
Institutional challenges
Capacity building
To ensure long term sustainability of associations, priority needs to be put on the following;
• comprehensive institutional and capacity building program support
• training in entrepreneurial development,
• strengthening partnerships with research institutions, and
• improving access to low-cost technologies
Financing
Most members of the associations are unable to access funding for expansion
Accreditation
Most associations require accreditation to enable influencing of policy on a common platform
Quality control
The quality of products produced is of substandard quality which affects sales
Lessons Learnt
National Umbrella organizations
Associations are affiliated to different organizations depending on their type of activity and/or location. The leading institutions mentioned were local governments, NFA, UWA, CARE and NAADS and other international NGOs such as African Wildlife Foundation, International Gorilla Conservation Program, Institute of Tropical Forest Conservation, were found to have long history of support to associations around the ecosystems of Bwindi Impenetrable and Mgahinga National Parks in South Western Uganda. In part, they provided support to make their own work easier and sustainable.
Uganda Bee-keepers Association, a national umbrella association, supports several associations countrywide. The National Council of Traditional Healers and Herbalists Association is also an umbrella association. It supports associations/groups in traditional medicine. Likewise, Uganda Community Tourism Association is supporting local associations participating in tourism activities in forests and parks. It relies largely on external support to be able to operate, rather than on membership fees and as yet has not had significant impact on craft export sales, although this is one of the key areas of intervention by UCOTA. To some extent, this is due to the NGO nature of the Association – it does not have substantial entrepreneurial or business management expertise within its ranks. These umbrella associations take on a theme around which their membership is identified, e.g. tourism, herbal medicine, beekeeping, shea-butter, etc. Thus, by working with and through such umbrella associations, government would cost effectively reach out to the poor. Field lessons could sharpen the policy environment for sustainable development. For example in the water sector, the UWASNET, an umbrella association of water and sanitation NGOs, has influenced government to include and promote water harvesting. Accordingly, the donors into the Water Sector Fund have started to support water-harvesting initiatives. Hitherto, rainwater was not looked at as a resource, perhaps not until it reached a river, a lake or reservoir. In forestry, the pilot projects on collaborative forest management (CFM) influenced the acceptance of CFM in the Uganda Forestry Policy and National Forestry & Tree Planting Act, 2003.
Affiliated associations were able to access support ranging from technical assistance, financing, material, political will, land and licensing.
Observations
The lack of dynamic development of the forestry sector in Uganda is seen both as the cause and the consequence of the disorganized nature of its key players. This can be addressed by supporting better organization of the sector as the priority area as fragmentation underlies most other factors affecting forestry associations.
A wealth of organizational structures and forms that are based on family ties, clan, lineage, proximity or ethnic groupings exists. These groups can be
viable forums through which government can begin to engage with rural communities.
At the national level, the failure of forest associations to cluster, organize or link up effectively is resulting in lost opportunities in policy advocacy, product development, sharing market information, expanding to new markets, developing market standards and taking advantage of training and support offered by government or donor funded initiatives.
Monday, July 5, 2010
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