Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is situated in Southwest Uganda and hosts almost half of the world¿s mountain gorilla population and 12 other animal threatened species. But not only, the three districts bordering Bwindi are the most densely populated of Uganda, 40 percent of the population lack sufficient land to meet basic needs and 16 percent of the population is landless.

Before the establishment of Bwindi National Park, the local communities -Bakiga and Batwa people- depended on the forest for resources such as weaving materials and medicinal plants, hunting, honey, fruits and building poles. Batwa people, otherwise named pygmies, are said to have lived in the forest until the early 60¿s.

The Community-based commercial Enterprise Development for the conservation of biodiversity at the Bwindi Heritage site was initiated to address the needs of communities and increase their cash income since they can no longer depend on local activities based on resources within the park. The project was launched in 2001 with the support of the UN Foundation and continued until 2004 with the financial support of both, the FAO and the UNF.

Based on five main components, the project aimed at:

• improving local capacity to develop and manage natural resource-based enterprises in a sustainable manner;

• selecting in a participatory manner the most promising products and services for potential enterprises, taking into account environmental, economical, social and technical criteria;

• having the community members to develop business plans for the selected enterprises;

• establishing viable tree and forest products enterprises operated independently by community members;

• and finally, documenting best practices and lessons learned.

After selecting three pilot sites, a district stakeholder workshop was carried out. The project staff and team of facilitators were trained in the Market Analysis and Development approach and in additional participatory approaches and skills needed to organize the village level workshop aimed at information gathering on potential products and services.

After the village level workshop was carried out, and once interest groups of community members had been created around selected promising products, the project focus turned to identifying able local entrepreneurs with leadership qualities. Utilizing the MA & D approach, the community members were involved from the outset in the planning of their enterprises. As a result 179 women and 129 men from three pilot sites became interested in creating specific enterprise groups.

Feasible products and services selected by the communities included: ecotourism, traditional beekeeping, handicrafts, bird watching, mushroom, passion fruit and Irish potato cultivation, credit access and community campground improvements.

Once the project ended, a case study was carried out in order to share the experiences gained during the project, also due to the specific context of a World Heritage Site such as the Bwindi Impenetrable Park. A shorter document was also prepared on the Buhoma Village Walk, a successful Community-based Tourism experience. To read both of these documents, please click on Publications.