Uganda turns to encroachers to protect forests

By Pascal Kwesiga

Uganda turns to encroachers to protect forests

Imagine a part of a natural forest – larger than the British Virgin Islands or half the size of Malta – being razed to the ground to make way for the cultivation of crops like maize and beans. This is what occurred in the Kagombe forest in western Uganda when over 600 farmers converted 65 square miles of this natural resource into farmland more than a decade ago.

Forty-six-year-old Ronald Alibankooha, one of the farmers who stormed the forest – which sits on around 425 square miles of land or nearly the land size of Hong Kong – said converting a section of this natural asset into cropland seemed to be the only option available to them back in 2010.

“We did not have enough fertile land to cultivate, and we were poor,” he said. “We wanted to earn a living from a forest closest to us by cultivating crops and cutting down trees for charcoal.”

Natural forests like Kagombe are protected by law in Uganda, but this does not stop people from raiding them to set up agricultural farms and harvest timber. For several years, the cultivators were engaged in running battles with the police as the government sought to evict the farmers from the protected area – setting their makeshift shelters ablaze as well as their crops on some occasions.

While the trespassers always returned to the forest as soon as the police left, this changed in 2021 when the government and development partners such as the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) – a global environmental conservation institution – came up with a new approach designed to not only get the cultivators out of the forest but also to become involved in conserving it. The cultivators were educated about the benefits of forests and organized into environmental conservation associations – putting them on the frontlines of protecting these natural resources.

Under a new collaborative forest management framework – expected to contribute to efforts to reverse the loss of 122,000 hectares of forests per year in Uganda – the farmers have been engaged in replanting the degraded part of the forest with indigenous tree species for around sh500,000 (some US$135) per hectare. This initiative has created a new revenue stream for the cultivators and also led to them creating village-based savings and credit organizations which encourage them to save part of their earnings from this forest restoration project and also create access to low-interest credit for investment.

So far, the farmers have restored over four square miles of the degraded area. Alibankooha said he and several former forest trespassers have bought plots of land and started various businesses using the earnings from replanting the degraded section of the forest.

“We now have permanent homes and have established livestock projects,” he added. “We are now protecting the forest and educating others about its benefits.”

As part of the scheme, the farmers are given free tree seedlings to plant on their land so they can further appreciate the benefits of raising trees. Once these trees mature, they can be harvested for various uses, including firewood which is growing increasingly scarce as populations and urban centers expand into formerly sparsely populated areas which had previously been sources of wood fuel.

They have also been supplied with energy-efficient stoves to help reduce pressure on the forest for firewood. Alibankooha said the various projects such as livestock rearing, apiary, fisheries and mushroom growing which communities around the forest have been supported to start as part of this scheme are helping them to raise additional income.

“There is no need to destroy forests because we now know there are alternative sources of livelihood,” he added. “We now know forests give us more benefits than the ones we get by cutting them down.”

Christopher Kamulegeya, the government supervisor for Kagombe forest, which lies in one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, said the community-led forest restoration and conservation approach is yielding significant fruits as it has turned forest trespassers into protectors.

“Poor people cannot appreciate the benefits of forests, they degrade them to get charcoal and produce food for consumption and sale,” Kamulegeya explained. “Over 600 former encroachers are now protecting the forest and adopting energy-saving stoves as firewood continues to become scarce. The forest is recovering and the numbers of wildlife species like chimps are growing. Lessons from this approach will inform decisions for restoring other degraded forests.”

According to the WWF, putting people at the center of restoring and conserving natural resources will hopefully result in a strong local movement for protecting forests from destruction as the world seeks to limit the increase in global temperature to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels – reducing the risks and impacts of climate change – in line with the 2015 UN Paris Agreement.

Philip Kihumuro, WWF’s forest restoration manager, cited poverty as one of the drivers of the degradation of natural resources and noted that this scheme has demonstrated that addressing the development needs of the people is key to the sustainable management of forests.

“It is also giving people alternative sources of livelihood and helping them appreciate that a forest in their backyard is not only useful to them but the entire world.”

Alibankooha said he now understands that protecting Kagombe forest – located in a landscape which is home to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization world heritage sites and endangered plant and animal species – is vital for the entire world, and that is why he is at the forefront of grassroots efforts to conserve it.

“My colleagues, former encroachers, and I now patrol this forest daily,” he said. “We are protecting it from new encroachers and fires because any threats to it represent serious dangers to us.”