Management regimes established for REDD+ and their adaptability to the institutional and ecological conditions: a case of Ongo community forest, Masindi District, Uganda.
Abstract
This report is one of the outputs of the project 'Man and forests - an evaluation of management strategies for reduced deforestation', led by the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB), Norway, in partnership with Makerere University, Uganda Sokoine University, of Agriculture, Tanzania, Fundaçāo Amazonas Sustentável, Brazil, The Woods Hole Research Center, USA and the University of Oslo, Norway. The aim of the project is to evaluate different management strategies undertaken to obtain reduced deforestation in tropical forests and hence maintain the various ecosystem services delivered. One component of this project is aimed at characterizing the management regimes established in the REDD+ pilot area and how well the REDD+ regime is adapted to the local situation regarding institutional and ecological conditions. In this respect, the collaborative team from Makerere University undertook investigations on the above two focal areas. The investigation entailed discussions with the implementing agent the Environmental Conservation Trust of Uganda (ECOTRUST), local council leaders, forest management committee members, Masindi district technical staff and community members. The report is structured as follows: Section 2 presents an overview of forest management and REDD+ in Uganda; the following section covers the process of introduction REDD+ regime in the pilot site and elaborates the governance and governance structures in the pilot site before and after the introduction of REDD+. Section 4 is devoted to an analysis of how well the REDD+ regime is adapted to existing institutional and ecological conditions. The paper closes with a conclusion summarizing the findings.