Collaborative Forest Management in Uganda: Benefits, Implementation Challenges and Future Directions

Abstract

In many countries including Uganda, management of forest resources has moved away from command and control system to a more participatory approach that require involvement of a broad spectrum of stakeholders. The introduction of Participatory Forest Management (PFM) was sparked by several factors: both international and local. At the international level, treaties and accords such as the Tropical Forest Action Plan (TFAP), an outgrowth of the agenda 21 framework initiated in Rio-de-Janeiro in 1992, sought to reverse the loss of forests through the involvement of stakeholders, especially adjacent communities. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) (1992) highlights the importance of sustainable use and equitable sharing of benefits that arise from biodiversity resources. At the local level, the original argument for increasing community participation in the maintenance of rural conservation projects stemmed from the need to better target people's needs, incorporate local knowledge, ensure that benefits were equitably distributed and lower management costs (Wily, 1998). The inclusion of communities in the management of state-owned or formerly state-owned forest resources has become increasingly common in the last 25 years. Almost all countries in Africa, and many in Asia, are promoting the participation of rural communities in the management and utilisation of natural forests and woodlands through some form of Participatory Forest Management (PFM) (Wily & Dewees, 2001). Many countries have now developed, or are in the process of developing, changes to national policies and legislation that institutionalise PFM. PFM encompasses a wide range of different co-management arrangements with different levels of control from relatively conservative “benefit sharing” to genuine “community-based natural resource management” where local communities have full control over management of the resource and the allocation of costs and benefits (Wily, 2002). Participatory forest management encompass processes and mechanisms that enable people who have a direct stake in forest resources to be part of decision-making in all aspects of forest management, from managing resources to formulating and implementing institutional frameworks. Notable among the participatory forestry management approaches are Joint Forest Management (JFM), Community Based Forest Management (CBFM) and Collaborative Forest Management (CFM). All these approaches tend to