Enabling Albertine Rift Communities Understand and Benefit from

39 Pages·2013·1.11 MB·English

by  Alex Muhweezi/fdi

Enabling Albertine Rift Communities Understand and Benefit from
Uganda’s REDD PROCESS, a Strategy for Sustainable Natural
Resource Use and Management

Uganda Wildlife Society and Buliisa District Local Government Technical
Series Number 1, 2013

Alex B. Muhweezi1, Joel Buyinza2 and Priscilla Nyadoi2

1Future Dialogues International, P.O. Box 4111 Kampala Uganda
2Uganda Wildlife Society, P.O. Box 7422 Kampala Uganda

Waiver (Disclaimer)
This REDD Training Material has been prepared with the financial assistance of IUCN
NL, Wetlands International and Both ENDS, partners in the Ecosystem Alliance. The
views expressed, the information and material presented and the geographical and
geopolitical designations used in this product do not imply the expression of any opinion
whatsoever on the part of IUCN NL, Wetlands International or Both ENDS or the
institutions and organisations providing these three organisations with funds.
1
SUMMARY
This REDD training material and content therein was prepared for Uganda Wildlife
Society and Buliisa District Local Government by Alex Muhweezi of Future Dialogues
International, Joel Buyinza and Priscilla Nyadoi both Employees of Uganda Wildlife
Society. The material was solely developed for purposes of training Buliisa District
Communities (including five civil society organizations, 25 individuals representing the
fisher folk, pastoralists, crop farmers, wildlife resource dependent and oil affected or
dependent households) and natural resource management institutions officials (Fisheries,
forestry, wildlife, agriculture, livestock, water and minerals) representatives. The purpose
of the REDD training detailed in this material is to equip these community and district
representatives with knowledge on Uganda‟s REDD+ so as to prepare them to participate
and benefit from the process. The material is structured in sections beginning from A
that gives an introduction to the entire content through E where issues and opportunities
for REDD+ specific to Buliisa are discussed. The last part of this material contains
references detailing literature accessed and used in the content preparation.

2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SUMMARY .................................................................................................................................... 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................ 3
ACRONYMS .................................................................................................................................. 5
SECTION A .................................................................................................................................... 6
INTRODUCTION TO UWS ECOSYSTEMS ALLIANCE REDD TRAINING PROGRAMME
IN BULIISA .................................................................................................................................... 6
Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 6
The Ecosystems Alliance Project Interventions in Buliisa by the Uganda Wildlife Society ...... 7
Specific activities under the UWS Ecosystems Alliance Project REDD Objective in Buliisa ... 8
Expected outputs ......................................................................................................................... 8
Specifics of REDD training to be conducted for change agents in Buliisa ................................. 9
The REDD Training activities ..................................................................................................... 9
Target REDD outputs ................................................................................................................ 10
SECTION B .................................................................................................................................. 12
UNDERSTANDING REDD+ ....................................................................................................... 12
Definitions/Glossary .................................................................................................................. 12
What is REDD+? ....................................................................................................................... 13
Why REDD+? ........................................................................................................................... 16
REDD+ principles ..................................................................................................................... 17
REDD+ Objectives .................................................................................................................... 17
REDD+ and Uganda‟s National Development .......................................................................... 17
REDD+ and Social economic development .............................................................................. 18
REDD+ and Forestry Policies and Plan .................................................................................... 20
REDD+ and Climate Change .................................................................................................... 21
3
Status of forestry resources REDD+ seeks to address ............................................................... 22
Forestry Resources .................................................................................................................... 22
Forestry Governance ................................................................................................................. 25
Drivers of deforestation and forest degradation ........................................................................ 26
SECTION C .................................................................................................................................. 28
REDD+ PROCESS FOR UGANDA............................................................................................. 28
The REDD Process in Uganda .................................................................................................. 28
Legal and policy issues pertaining to R-PP implementation ..................................................... 29
Stakeholder participation and engagement ................................................................................ 29
Institutional arrangements ......................................................................................................... 30
Supervision, coordination, participation, implementation and accountability .......................... 30
Roles and Mandates during R-PP implementation .................................................................... 32
SECTION D .................................................................................................................................. 33
UNDERSTANDING REDD+ PRINCIPLES AND TOOLS ........................................................ 33
Principles and tools under REDD+ ........................................................................................... 33
Table 6: Principles and tools ......................................................................................................... 33
Table 7: Sample tools of direct relevance to different districts in Uganda ................................... 34
SECTION E ................................................................................................................................... 37
ASSESSEMENT OF ISSUES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR REDD+ IN BULIISA ................ 37
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................. 38

4
ACRONYMS
CBD Convention on Biological Diversity
CFM Collaborative Forest Management
CRM Collaborative Resources Management
CSO Civil Society Organization
FAO Food and Agriculture Organization (of UN)
FCPF Forest Carbon Partnership Fund
FSSP Forestry Support Services Department
GHG Green House Gases
MEAs Multi-lateral Environmental Agreements
NFA National Forest Authority
NFP National Forest Plan
PFE Permanent Forest Estate
REDD Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation
R-PIN REDD Project Identification Note
R-PP REDD Readiness preparation proposal
SESA Strategic Environment and Social Assessment
THF Tropical High Forest
UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
UWA Uganda Wildlife Authority
UWS Uganda Wildlife Society

5
SECTION A
INTRODUCTION TO UWS ECOSYSTEMS ALLIANCE REDD TRAINING
PROGRAMME IN BULIISA
Introduction
Uganda Wildlife Society (UWS) is a not for profit nongovernmental membership based
organization in Uganda. The Society was established in 1998 after thirty eight years of
operating as the East African Wildlife Society-Uganda Branch. The driving force behind
UWS formation was the need for the EAWLS members in Uganda to get better organized
in order to effectively engage with wildlife and environment issues in Uganda. The
Society vision is Wildlife and People living in Harmony. And in that, the members
aspire to contributing towards a harmonious co-existence between wildlife and people in
Uganda and beyond. The Society mission is to promote the conservation of wildlife and
environment. To realize her mission, the Society implements a range of activities in five
strategic areas that include; advocacy, knowledge generation, policy dialogues and field
demonstrations. The UWS goal is sustainable utilization of wildlife and other natural
resources. Thus the longer term objective for all programme and activities of UWS is
sustainable use of resources, a driving force behind most challenges facing conservation.

To realize its goal, UWS activities are aimed towards achieving the following objectives:
a. To influence policy formulation for environmental management through
providing forums for addressing, advocating and debating conservation issues.
b. To generate knowledge on wildlife and natural resources and to provide informed
non-biased environment information to the government, private sector and other
civil society organizations.
c. To promote the understanding of linkage of livelihoods and sustainable use of
wildlife and natural resources through raising awareness and implementing
conservation projects about the environment among people.

Uganda Wildlife Society Core Business includes;
6
a) Carrying out advocacy/lobbying for harmonious co-existence-Wildlife and
environment.
b) Generating and disseminating knowledge and information about wildlife and
other natural resources (environment subsectors).
c) Field demonstration projects on wildlife conservation and or environmental
management.

The Ecosystems Alliance Project Interventions in Buliisa by the Uganda Wildlife
Society
The Ecosystems Alliance Project in Buliisa is funded by the Netherland Government
through a consortium involving Wetlands International, BothEnds and IUCN-NL. The
goal of the UWS interventions in Buliisa under the Ecosystems Alliance Uganda Country
Programme is to empower communities and institutions in the district for sustainable
natural resource management. In particular UWS is equipping Buliisa communities and
institutions with knowledge and technologies for appropriate land and other natural
resources use and management. These interventions will help restore ecosystems, secure
livelihoods and green economy of the district and also provide lessons for the entire
Albertine Rift and related regions in Uganda. It is important to note that under the
Ecosystems Alliance-Uganda Country Programme, UWS is partnering with African
Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO) and the National Association for Professional
Environmentalists (NAPE). These partners are implement similar Ecosystems Alliance
Activities but in the districts of Hoima and Kasese region. Objectives of UWS –
Ecosystems Alliance Project Interventions in Buliisa include:
1) At least 830 private landowners-households (composed of farmers, pastoralists,
ranchers) practicing sustainable land and water resource use and management.
2) Five communities (Private land owners/farmers, Fishery, Forest, National Parks and
Wildlife resources dependent communities) empowered to claim/demand for their
rights to the natural resources and using appropriate established strategies to do this.
3) About 750 hectares of privately owned land brought under sustainable use and
management.
7
4) Mining companies effectively implement existing Policies and NEMA and UWA
guidelines regulating the impact of mining in protected areas and, the communities
and institutions in the district holding the miners accountable; i.e. empowered to
monitor and actually monitoring the mining companies‟ compliance to the guidelines.
5) At least 3 CSOs network strengthened and actively engaged in defending the
communities‟ rights and interest against mining /extractive industries.
6) A report on REDD Potential Opportunities, risks and issues in Buliisa District and at
least 3 CSOs from Buliisa supported to participate in the National REDD strategy
and working with the five communities in Buliisa as change agents, to connect and
help the communities benefit from the National REDD Strategy.
7) National level/North–South Policy formulation processes informed on lessons,
experiences/knowledge from Ecosystems Alliance project in Buliisa.

Activities under UWS Ecosystems Alliance Project REDD Objective in Buliisa
In Buliisa the Society aims to train change agents (including 25 representative of the
resource user groups – fisher folk, crop farmers, pastoralists, wildlife resource dependent
communities and oil affected/dependent households and district local government
representatives) on REDD. The change agents will in turn work with their respective
communities, training them and enabling them participate and benefit from Uganda‟s
REDD processes. To realize the training outputs, the Society will:
a. Develop REDD training materials: contents include: Uganda REDD+ process,
approaches to carrying out Consultations, participation, grievances/conflicts
management, assessing drivers of deforestation and forest degradation and identification
of strategies for addressing it, process for undertaking SESA, identifying and describing
institutional arrangements, benefit sharing, Reference Scenario, MRV and others).
b. Train change agents-CSOs, communities/institution representatives, UWS personnel and
selected district departments in Buliisa.
c. Design strategies for change agents‟ participation in National REDD processes.

Expected outputs
The expected outputs under the REDD training activities thus include:
8
a. Developed- training materials on REDD for future use by UWS for trainings/campaigns.
b. Trained on REDD-change agents (CSOs, representatives of communities and district
government officials UWS is working with, UWS Staff). The agents in turn capable of
training others (CSOs, communities and stakeholders in Buliisa).
c. Designed-strategies/mechanisms for change agents‟ participation in Uganda REDD
processes.
With respect to training the change agents on REDD+, UWS aims to achieve the
following:
a. The change agents in Buliisa district trained and acquire knowledge about
REDD+ and are able to actively promoting the Uganda REDD+ processes among
communities they are assigned to work with (farmers, wildlife resource dependent
households, fisher folk, oil affected and or dependent households and
pastoralists).
b. Information on potential opportunities, risks and benefits of implementing
Uganda's REDD+ strategies in Buliisa District generated and disseminated.

Specifics of REDD training to be conducted for change agents in Buliisa
The objective is to train change agents in Buliisa in REDD+ and prepare them to serve as
Change Agents (REDD+ training and implementation agents) in Buliisa district.
However, in order for the targeted CSOs to gain from the training and be able to apply
knowledge gained, training will extend to benefit the following key players who will be
collaborating with or supporting the CSOs: District technical staff (environment, forestry,
agriculture, fisheries), Sector players (Forestry-NFA, Wildlife (UWA), Oil (Environment
Officers for Oil Companies) and , UWS Project Staff.

The REDD Training activities
The REDD training Buliisa shall involve building knowledge base about REDD+ and
focus on:
a. Unpacking REDD+ (Global concepts as well as Uganda‟s REDD+ scenarios).
b. Sharing information on REDD+ Process for Uganda.
9
c. Understanding REDD+ principles and tools for conducting Consultations and
Participation, managing Grievances and Conflicts Management, Identifying
drivers of Deforestation and Forest Degradation, Identifying Strategies for
addressing Deforestation and forest Degradation, conducting Strategic
Environment and Social Impact Assessment (SESA), designing institutional
arrangements for REDD+ Strategy implementation, Benefit sharing, Establishing
Reference Scenario, and , Measuring, Reporting and Verifying REDD+ impacts.
d. Identifying opportunities and issues for REDD+ for Buliisa.
e. Identifying interventions areas for strengthening capacity to deliver REDD+ in
district.

Target REDD outputs
 Trained change agents capable of training others (CSOs, Communities,
stakeholders on REDD+)
 Knowledge and awareness of REDD+ process among Trainees.
 REDD+ Training materials and information for use by UWS.
 Strategies and mechanisms for enhancing engagement of CSOs in Buliisa with
national REDD+ process.

10