Forest Investment Program for Uganda.

This Forest Investment Program (FIP) for Uganda is a cross-sectoral policy document at national level. In line with global objectives and the Climate Investment Fund- Forest Investment Program (CIF-FIP) target catalytic outcomes, Uganda has defined the goal of the Uganda FIP as: A low carbon and climate resilient development in the land use. The core objectives of FIP are to reduce GHG emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, enhance forest carbon stocks and strengthen forestry governance. Co-benefit objectives are to (i) reduce poverty through improved quality of life of forest de-pendent indigenous peoples and local communities, (ii) reduce biodiversity loss and increase resilience of forest ecosystems to climate variability and change, and (iii) improve governance of forestry resources.
The FIP promotes the sustainable use of forest resources, protection of gazetted forests and creation of incentives for maintaining natural forests on private land and improve forestry policy performance. The FIP has three investment projects: a. Investment Project 1 (IP1): Climate Resilient Landscapes, Integrated Catchment Management and Nature-Based Tourism in Uganda’s Albertine Rift. b. Investment Project 2 (IP2): Climate Resilient Landscapes, Integrated Catchment Management and Nature-Based Tourism in Uganda’s Lake Kyoga and Upper Nile WMZ. c. Investment Project 3 (IP3): Strengthening capacity for forestry governance and policy implementation. One of the outcomes of FIP is: Improved enabling environment for REDD+ and sustainable management of forests. Pilot projects will provide proof of concept at landscape level for models that avoid deforestation and forest degradation, both within and outside protected forests, restore forest landscapes and biodiversity corridors, and contribute to socio-economic development. Two of the key results of the FIP are: improved ecological integrity of targeted forest ecosystems; and sustainable use of forest resources for livelihoods and economic development.
One of the co-benefits results of FIP is: Forest sector contribution to livelihoods and poverty reduction increased. The landscape-level investments proposed in the FIP will not focus solely on the forest sector. They will address the underlying drivers of forest loss and degradation in an integrated way. FIP investments linking forestry and livelihoods (IP1 and IP2) at landscape level include sustainable forest production processes, forest watershed/landscape management and restoration and sustainable catchment management. These investments will ensure sustained provision of forestry goods and services to support livelihoods in the targeted landscapes. These investments will result in increased access and use of forest resources by forest-dependent people and local communities in a sustainable manner, increased opportunities for income from non-timber forest goods and services, and reduced vulnerability of rural communities, women, youth and vulnerable people from the effects of climate change. FIP investments in forest governance and participatory forest management practices, including for indigenous peoples, will create an enabling environment for sustainable and secure access to and use of forest resources by all, including women. Activities at the landscape level seek to build on approaches recognizing that local stakeholders are central in finding solutions to forest loss and degradation, and need to be engaged fully in the planning, implementation and monitoring of sustainable landscape management approaches.
Furthermore, the FIP promotes to enable more inclusive and efficient forestry system. Applying Public-Private Partnership PP approaches, (IP1 and IP2) will focus on the development of wood product markets and value chains starting with formal businesses, and the mobilization of smallholder farmers and communities by linking them to viable forest value chains.
Uganda is one of the countries at greatest risk from the impacts of climate change. The objective of IP1 and IP2 is to pioneer a more holistic approach to integrating forestry resources development and catchment protection within land management plans and practices at land scape. The two landscape projects will combine investments focusing on climate change mitigation (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) with investments focusing on climate change adaptation, i.e. increasing resilience of the largely rural population deriving their livelihoods from agriculture and forests in the landscape projects. Key Components of IP1 and IP2 include: Strengthening integrated water catchment management; Strengthening forest conservation; Restoring land, forest and other ecosystems in key subcatchments; Nature-based tourism development; Integrated land and watershed management including support to water harvesting, storage and utilization; Project monitoring and management; etc.