11 August 2009
For the thousands of people who live scattered around its fringes, Echuya Forest in south west Uganda is the source of most of life's essentials.
The bamboo that grows within its 35 square kilometres supplies the raw material for basket-weaving, one of the major local trades, while its other natural assets furnish locals with fuel, building materials and foodstuffs. The forest is a great provider that, as the numbers of trees and shrubs outside its boundaries have dwindled in recent years, has become more precious than ever.
High costs
Eldad Bakeringire knows just how precious. He lives in one of the seven parishes that surround Echuya and for a long time he ventured into the forest every day to harvest bamboo. With nearby forests either stripped of bamboo or closing themselves to bamboo harvesters, Echuya became the sole place in the area to acquire the plant. Licensing did exist to regulate the bamboo harvest in Echuya, but the permits were hard to come by for local people, and illegal harvesting flourished.
The costs of this illicit activity were high. Limited forest resources were being plundered and, on top of this, conflicts were frequently breaking out between bamboo harvesters and forest officials. There was a need to control the amount of bamboo being cut down, at the same time as protecting local livelihoods.
With DFID funding, a number of conservation agencies set about doing just that – and Eldad was one of those who benefited. He was given training in farming techniques that enabled him to move from harvesting bamboo to growing passion fruit, a valuable commercial crop. Selling over 20 sacks of the fruit within a six month period, he made the equivalent of £430, which paid for a move from his grass-roofed hut to an iron-roofed house, extra land for planting, and six cows and 11 sheep.
Turning a profit
Eldad now runs an efficient, self-sustaining business, with manure from his cows fertilising the passion fruit vines and even the fruit shells turning a profit, by being sold off to a local biscuit-making company. Around the forest, as a result of the kind of training that Eldad received, hundreds of others have set up similar enterprises, in areas such as bee-keeping, mushroom-growing and tree-planting - as well as in bamboo production.
However, Eldad for one has no intention of returning to bamboo. He points to his children, each of whom suffered from the nutrition-related disease Kwashikor, which causes skin problems and hair loss. Now that the family income is at an all-time high, all four are in good health. "Thanks to the project, I’m earning the same as an educated person,” he says. Many others in this remote part of Uganda could now say the same.
Facts and stats
- DFID provided £350,000 to the project between 2004 and 2008 through the Civil Society Challenge Fund. The project was operated by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and NatureUganda.
- The project trained 120 farmers in sustainable organic agricultural methods and provided communities with the skills and capacity to negotiate deals with the National Forest Authority. This provided approximately 1,020 households (some 8,000 people) with sustainable access to forest resources.
- The project also supported environmental education in all 27 local primary schools, leading to a high awareness of conservation issues among the region's youth.
- The rural communities around Echuya Forest are amongst the poorest in Uganda, with more than 35% living below the poverty line. Per capita income around the forest is estimated at $20 per annum, compared to the national average of $300.