Uganda’s natural resources and the ecosystem services they provide are key to the country’s economy, contributing an estimated 23 percent to its GDP in 2014–2015. The population, which is 85 percent rural, is heavily reliant on subsistence agriculture and the harvesting of natural resources, including forest products, as a means of generating income. The country’s forests are among the most biodiverse in Africa, and in addition to providing energy resources, timber, medicines, wild foods and other wood and non-wood value chains, offer tourism opportunities that could be further developed. 

But despite these many benefits, Uganda’s forests and natural resources have steadily degraded in recent years. Its population has more than tripled in 40 years, reaching 34.9 million people in 2014, positioning it with the third-highest population growth rate in the world. This growth has led to an expansion of agricultural land, including into forested areas, and an increased need for energy. 89 percent is sourced from biomass, including wood. This has put intense pressure on natural resources, and led to a reduction in natural forest cover from 30 percent of total land area in 1990 to approximately 10 percent in 2015.

However, the Government of Uganda has shown a strong desire to tackle these challenges, and has placed the restoration of its degraded forests and landscapes high on its agenda. Under Uganda’s Vision 2040, the ambition is to restore forest cover from 15 percent in 2010 to 24 percent by 2040. The Second National Development Plan aims to increase forest cover from 14 percent in the 2012–2013 fiscal year to 18 percent in the 2019–2020 fiscal year. More recently, as a pledge to the Bonn Challenge, the country has committed to restore 2.5 million hectares of degraded landscapes, including 2.1 million hectares of forests.  

Uganda is also progressing with the implementation of REDD+ by, among other things, developing its Forest Investment Programme (FIP). The goal of the FIP is to support the country in reducing deforestation and forest degradation and in promoting sustainable forest management. Developed under the leadership of the Ministry of Water and Environment, the FIP is supported by the World Bank and African Development Bank. FAO’s Forest and Landscape Restoration Mechanism (FLRM) is supporting the process through the provision of technical assistance for the FIP’s preparation.

Through the FLRM, FAO’s support to the Government will focus on preparing the ground for the large-scale transition towards restored and sustainably managed productive forest and landscapes in the years to come, in full alignment with Uganda’s commitments, policies and plans. To achieve this, the FLRM will facilitate the integration of restoration activities in the FIP. By planning for integration in large-scale efforts, FLRM activities will help ensure that a landscape approach – looking at the multiple functions of a landscape in an integrated manner – and its multiple benefits for people and nature will be incorporated in future interventions. 

The FLRM’s support builds on and complements the efforts of other key players such as the World Bank, the African Development Bank and IUCN. It is an approach that will enable new and synergistic forms of collaboration between development partners to be tested, thus allowing for their potential replication by other financing and investment partners, such as The Global Environment Facility (GEF) or the Green Climate Fund (GCF). This would also increase Uganda’s capacity to leverage additional international funding resources and implement collaborative programmes that maximize the comparative advantages of the various partners involved. 

For more information please contact the FLRM team at: [email protected].

Faustine Zoveda