Sustainability Assessment of Kibale National Park In the context of Governance and

Natural Resource Management

Natural features in the landscape, ecosystems provide environmental, social and economic
benefits to communities. The value of ecosystems in providing these services is becoming
increasingly evident and there is a growing recognition of their importance to human well-being.
Forests are ecosystems that represent almost 30% of terrestrial land cover worldwide (3 999
million ha), containing 80% of all terrestrial biomass (providing extensive benefits from a variety
of ecosystem services. Primary (undisturbed natural) forests represent a third of total forests
making them especially significant contributions of ecosystem services(Forestry and
Macroeconomic Accounts of Uganda: UNREDD 2018).

Uganda boasts significant potential for effective conservation, sustainable forest management,
and viable timber plantations. Despite covering only 0.02% of the world’s dry land, Uganda is
home to over 11% of the world's bird species and 7% of mammal species. Sir Winston Churchill
aptly named Uganda the "pearl of Africa" at the century's start Forests and woodlands cover
approximately 4.9 million hectares in Uganda, about 24% of the total land area. The vast
majority of this is woodland (19%), while the rest is tropical moist forest (5%) and
forest.plantations (0.2%). The total forest reserve area is estimated at 1,277,684 hectares, of
which 99.6 % is under the Central Forest Reserves while 0.4% is on Local Forest Reserves
https://www.fao.org/4/AC427E/AC427E05.htm#:~:text=The%20forestry%20sector%20plays
%20a,accounting%20for%2030%25%20of%20this.)

Republic of Uganda is situated in East Africa bordering to Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya, South
Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo (UNDP Annual report, 2023). The population of
47249583 in 2022 is a low income country, with projected increase of 85% to 87622086
(https://data.who.int/countries/800). The average life expectancy of the country in 2021 was 66
years. It is one of the youngest countries with population of 74% under the age of 30. Uganda
has high adult unemployment rate with 11.9 percent in 2021. The gross national income was
2241 per capita and GDP growth was +42 percent in 2021 and 5.2 percent in 2022. The mean
years of Schooling was 6.2 years and expected years of schooling was 11.5 years. Government of
Uganda has made ambitious climate action commmitment with participation in Paris Agreement
in 2015 to build institutional capacity for nature and climate policy and planning.
(https://data.who.int/countries/800)

Despite the rich natural capital, Uganda faces many environmental challenges as it strives to
create a sustainable future for its citizens. Conservation challenges in Uganda include high
population growth, deforestation, lack of alternative fuel sources, wildlife trafficking and
expanded oil exploration. Climate change and variability is also impacting the livelihoods of
many Ugandans (https://2012-2017.usaid.gov/uganda/environment#:~:text=Uganda%20faces
%20many%20environmental%20challenges,the%20unique%20Albertine%20Rift%20Valley.)
Uganda has heavy reliance on the natural product especially on domestic products such as wood
biomass and bush meats. The guiding principle of Uganda forest is the consistency with the
constitution and Vision 2025 in guiding sustainable development, Commitment to conservation
and sustainable development, meeting the needs of this generation without compromising the
rights of future generations; Improvement of livelihoods as a major goal in all strategies and
action. Despite these guiding principle Uganda forest sectors and livelihood of the adjacent
community continues to face challenges such as deforestation and livelihood generation.
(https://www.mwe.go.ug/sites/default/files/State%20of%20Uganda's%20Forestry-2015.pdf)

In context of National park there might be varied interest from different stakeholders from
national forest stakeholders to the local communities who often face issues of sustainability in
form of human wildlife conflict, which is also found to be in Kibale National Park, Uganda. The
communities often face threat from crop destruction from wildlife which could bring resentment
towards park. These issues often can arise from the park governance itself. (Human-Wildlife
Conflict Mitigation Impacts Community Perceptions around Kibale National Park, Uganda
by Lev Kolinski and Krista M. Milich).

The importance of forest resource is well highlighted globally and in Ugandan Context. Despite
Uganda’s is rich in natural resource and the efforts in terms of policy and strategies have been
adopted socially, economically and in terms of conservation values the country still is looking to
improve further. The effect of continuous policy making has to be evaluated in terms of the
sustainability to improve resource condition and secure the livelihood of the people.

### Summary of Uganda's Forestry Sector

Potential and Challenges

Uganda boasts significant potential for effective conservation, sustainable forest management,
and viable timber plantations. Despite covering only 0.02% of the world’s dry land, Uganda is
home to over 11% of the world's bird species and 7% of mammal species. Sir Winston Churchill
aptly named Uganda the "pearl of Africa" at the century's start. However, this potential has been
hampered by poor governance and political instability over the past 30 years, leading to the
destruction of infrastructure and the economy.

#### Agriculture and Forestry

Subsistence agriculture is the main livelihood source for 85% of Uganda's rural population. The
agricultural sector remains underdeveloped, characterized by family labor, rudimentary
technology, and a lack of improved seeds, pesticides, and fertilizers. In this context, forestry
plays a crucial role in Uganda's development and poverty eradication efforts.

#### Uganda Forest Policy

The Uganda Forest Policy envisions a well-forested, ecologically stable, and economically
prosperous country. A national forestry program is being developed to conserve, manage, and
sustainably develop forests for local, national, regional, and global needs. Despite past forest
damage, there is still a solid ecological basis for sustainable forestry.

#### Forest Categories and Conditions

Uganda's forests are divided into natural forests and plantations. Natural forests, heavily
degraded in the past, now have only 50,000 ha of exploitable forest out of 100,000-200,000 ha.
The tropical high forests (THF) under government ownership have shrunk from 3,090,000 ha
(12.7% of the country) to 730,000 ha (3.6% of Uganda’s land area) since the early 20th century.
Deforestation has mainly been driven by population growth, agricultural conversion, and policy
failures (Forest Department, 1996; Forest Department, 1999).

#### Forest Plantations

Forest plantations established in the 1960s and 70s are now in poor condition. In 1995, the
annual allowable cut from plantations was estimated at 150,000 cubic meters (Forest
Department, 1995). Uganda has limited timber plantations, mainly pine and cypress, which have
suffered from neglect and fire damage. Government-owned plantation forests cover about 240
km², or 2.2% of gazetted forests, while private plantations and woodlots cover approximately
13,000 ha (Falkenberg et al., 2000; NORAD, 1999).
#### Threats to Forests

Uganda’s forest cover has decreased from 45% in 1890 to 20.3% today, with a deforestation rate
of about 1% per annum. The annual cost of deforestation is estimated at $3.8-$5.7 million.
Deforestation is primarily occurring in privately owned or ungazetted public forests, with
military conflicts also contributing to forest degradation (Kigenyi, 1995; Falkenberg et al., 2000).

#### Economic Contribution

The forestry sector's contribution to GDP is estimated between 2% and 6%. However,
environmental services like climate regulation, soil conservation, biodiversity protection, and
carbon sequestration are significant yet unquantified (Ministry of Finance; Forest Department).

#### Social and Environmental Roles

The forestry sector provides employment, raw materials for construction and furniture making,
and energy. Over 90% of Uganda's energy demand is met by firewood and charcoal. Forests also
support food security, cultural and spiritual values, and provide medicinal plants used by 90% of
the rural population (Claus-Michael, 2000).

#### Institutional Framework

The management of forest resources is divided among several agencies: the National Forest
Authority (NFA), District Forestry Services (DFS), and local governments. The National
Agricultural Organization (NARO) and Forest Research Institute (FORI) are key research
bodies. The Ministry of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development ensures forest
management is integrated into national planning (Uganda Investment Authority).

#### Collaborative Forest Management (CFM)

Collaborative Forest Management (CFM) has emerged as a key approach, involving agreements
between community groups and the government to manage and use forest resources. This
approach aims to improve forest conditions, regulate utilization, and generate income for
communities. Since the reforms in the late 1990s, CFM has gained popularity, with 44 groups
having valid agreements by December 2019 (Mawa et al., 2021; Kazoora et al., 2019; MWE,
2020).
For further details, visit: [FAO](https://www.fao.org/4/AC427E/AC427E05.htm#:~:text=The
%20forestry%20sector%20plays%20a,accounting%20for%2030%25%20of%20this.), [WHO
Data](https://data.who.int/countries/800), and [UNDP Annual Report]
(https://data.who.int/countries/800).

Uganda is a country with high potential for effective conservation, sound sustainable natural
forest management and viable timber plantations. It has great potential for sustained economic
growth. Despite her small size of only 0.02% of the world’s total dry land area, Uganda has over
11% and 7% of the known world’s total of species of birds and mammals respectively. It is not
surprising therefore, that she was referred to as the "pearl of Africa" by Sir Winston Churchill at
the start of the century. The translation of this potential into reality has been curtailed by several
factors. The major factor has been bad governance and politics of the last 30 years that has led
to the destruction of people, infrastructure and the economy.

Uganda depends heavily on subsistence agriculture as the main source of livelihood. Agriculture
is sustained by about 85% of the population who are rural based. The agricultural sector is
largely undeveloped characterised by family labour, rudimentary technology, poor crop
husbandry, lack of improved seed, lack of pesticides, lack of fertilisers, a land use policy and
with a low rate of land use. It is against such a background that the role of forestry in the
development of Uganda is considered as crucial in the eradication of poverty.

The Uganda Forest Policy states the country’s forestry sector vision as: a sufficiently forested,
ecologically stable and economically prosperous Uganda. A national forestry program is being
developed to ensure the conservation, management and sustainable development of the forests
to meet local, national, regional and global needs and requirements for the benefit of present
and future generations. Although there has been a long period of upheaval and considerable
damage to some forests, there is still a solid ecological basis from which sustainable forestry
can operate. It is part of Uganda’s development strategy that forest resources play a full part in
development to maximise the positive impact on poverty.

Status of the Forestry Sector in Uganda

The Natural Forests

Uganda’s forests fall into two major categories namely the natural forests and the plantations.
Natural forests supply the bulk of forest products but plantations are gaining prominence. High
Forests in Uganda were in the past degraded so much such that only 100,000 to 200,000 ha
can be considered as ‘productive’ forest. It is estimated that of this only 50,000 ha are
exploitable. The rest is so degraded that it will have to be protected for at least another 20
years. In 1995, the Forest Department estimated that an annual allowable cut of about 200,000
cubic meters would be yielded from natural forest reserves in the next 15 years (Forest
Department, 1995). In 1995, it was estimated that an annual allowable cut of about 100,000
cubic meters of wood would be yielded from public and private forests within the next 15 years
(Forest Department, 1995).

At the beginning of the century, the tropical high forests (THF) under government ownership
covered about 3,090,000 ha or 12.7% of the country. Current estimates indicate that the THF
estate under government ownership has now been reduced to 730,000 ha or 3.6% of Uganda’s
land area (Forest Department, 1999). Current predictions estimate that if allowed to continue at
the present rate, wetlands and open water areas will be reduced to 4,500 km2 and 36,900
km2 respectively by the year 2006 (Forest Department, 1996). Deforestation in Uganda has
mainly been due to a rapid increase of a population with no other economic options coupled
with breakdown of law and order during the turbulent years of the 1980s. During that time, forest
reserves were cleared indiscriminately.

Forest Plantations

The existing forest plantations were established in the 1960 and 70s. They are in a poor state.
Data on their productivity is scanty. In 1995, it was estimated that an annual allowable cut of
about 150,000 cubic meters was expected from the forest plantations for the next 15 years
(Forest Department, 1995).

Despite a favourable climate and soils, Uganda has only a limited area of timber plantations,
mainly pine and cypress. These are mostly mature or semi-mature but years of neglect have led
to fire damage. Lack of pruning and thinning has reduced the potential value for high quality
timber. Industrial forest plantations in Uganda consist of softwood or conifer and hardwood
plantations. They cover about 345 km2 of which the majority is planted with softwoods.
Government owned plantation forests are estimated at 240 km2 making up only 2.2% of
gazetted forests. The main objective of the plantation establishment is to provide raw material to
forest industries in the form of saw logs and or pulpwood (Falkenberg et al, 2000).

Most of the hardwood plantations (eucalyptus) are in peri-urban areas for the purpose of
supplying mainly fuel-wood and poles to urban enterprises. The Forest Department owns about
900 hectares of these plantations while about 1,000 hectares belong to the private sector but is
on reserved land.

The private sector, especially tea and tobacco processing companies has also established
plantations. Private woodlots are also scattered all over the country. These private wood lots
and plantations are estimated to cover an area of about 13,000 ha (NORAD, 1999).

Threats to the Forest Estate

In the last 100 years Uganda’s forests have faced severe pressures mainly from agricultural
conversion as a result of population increase, urban demand for charcoal, over grazing,
uncontrolled timber harvesting and policy failures. The forestry cover has shrunk from 45% in
1890 to the present 20.3 % of the total land area in Uganda. Currently, the rate of deforestation
is estimated to be about 1% per annum (Kigenyi, 1995). The annual cost of deforestation in
Uganda has been conservatively estimated at US$ 3.8 –5.7 million per year (Falkenberg et al,
2000). Currently, deforestation is minimal on gazetted forest reserves, it is mostly occurring on
privately owned or ungazetted public forests. Military warfare in Uganda has contributed much
to deforestation. Uganda has had a turbulent history and sometimes guerrilla groups launch
their attacks from forests and woodlands. This has led to poor management of forests and in the
past, clearance of some forest in search of rebels. Today rebels have occupied Rwenzori
Mountains in Uganda since 1997. This has prevented any meaningful conservation activity
indeed in December 1999 UNESCO added this site to its list of world heritage sites in danger.

Economic Contribution of the Forest Sector to Gross Domestic Product

In Uganda, the value of forestry in terms of its contribution to the national welfare or even gross
domestic product (GDP) is very difficult to estimate. This is due to lack of adequate data on its
output and services. Environmental services at the moment are difficult to estimate in monetary
terms. It is therefore not surprising that different figures have been used over the years to reflect
the contribution of the forestry sector in Uganda to GDP. The Ministry of Finance has been
estimating it to be about 2% for the last 10 years while the Forest Department put is at about
6%. These figures exclude the environmental services, which have not been quantified. The
actual percentage contribution of the forest sector and other primary sectors to GDP is expected
to decrease as that of other sectors increases. This is in line with economic development in the
country.

Environmental Services

Probably the greatest contribution of the forest sector to the economy of Uganda is the
environmental services it provides in terms of climate regulation, soil conservation, and
protection of biodiversity and carbon sequestration. Unfortunately, these services are not
quantified. The forests of Mt Elgon, Rwenzori, Bwindi and Mgahinga have substantial values as
watershed areas and reservoirs for unique biodiversity.

The exploitation of the environmental services of forestry is to be enhanced by the active

promotion of farm forestry as proposed in the Plan for Modernisation of Agriculture (PMA). Farm
forestry is to be used, as the means for improving soil productivity and for it’s multiple socio-
economic benefits in almost all the farming systems in the country. Agriculture, as already,
mentioned is the backbone of Uganda’s economy.

Social Functions of Forestry in Uganda

The forestry sector plays a significant role in the lives of Ugandans in the following areas:

Employment: The forestry sector offers significant employment. Rough estimates put the current
annual turnover of business in forestry at close to Ush 297 billion with the non-monetary value
accounting for 30% of this.

Raw materials for Construction and Furniture Making and Energy: The forestry sector provides
energy and raw materials for the construction and furniture making industries. Over 90% of the
national energy demand is from firewood and charcoal. While about 400,000 cubic meters per
year is used in the construction industry and for furniture making (Claus-Michael, 2000).

Food Security, Cultural and Spiritual Values: The rural population in Uganda depends on forests
for food security, agricultural productivity and cultural and spiritual values that depend on trees
and environmental services from trees. Forests are a major source of medicinal plants, which
are mostly used by the rural population (about 90%).

Institutional set up of the Forestry Sector.

Management of the Forest Resource

The constitution of Uganda (1995) vests the responsibility for managing Uganda’s gazetted
forest resources in the government but at different levels and in different agencies. The key
agencies are Forest Department, Uganda Wild life Authority and local government (District
Councils). All other partners support, collaborate and complement the efforts of the government
in providing financial and technical support, human resource development or training materials
and publicity. The role of each agency has been elaborated upon in Chapter 5.

Forestry Research

The key agency for forestry research is the National Agricultural Organization (NARO) through
the Forest Research Institute (FORI). Other government departments that are involved in forest
research are the Forest Department (FD), Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) and the Universities
of Makerere and Mbarara. A number of NGOs are also involved such as ICRAF.

National Economic Planning

The Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development is responsible for the overall
economic planning of the country and therefore has a direct role in ensuring that forest matters
are included in the national planning and allocation of resources. It also coordinates all external
financial input to any planning or implementation of forest related activities, which is meant to
assist in the government.

( https://www.fao.org/4/AC427E/AC427E05.htm#:~:text=The%20forestry%20sector%20plays
%20a,accounting%20for%2030%25%20of%20this.)

1) Background to the Forestry Sector

1.1 Structure

Forests and woodlands cover approximately 4.9 million hectares in Uganda, about 24% of the
total land area. The vast majority of this is woodland (19%), while the rest is tropical moist forest
(5%) and forest.plantations (0.2%). The total forest reserve area is estimated at 1,277,684
hectares, of which 99.6 % is under the Central Forest Reserves while 0.4% is on Local Forest
Reserves as shown in
Uganda offers six (6) principal indigenous/natural forest reserves for harvesting with

hard wood species such as Chlorophora excelsa, Celtis, Maesopsis eminii, Entandrophragma,

Cynometra alexandrii, Lovoa brownii, and Newtonia buchanani.Policy, Legal and Regulatory
Framework

The governing law for the sector is the National Forestry and Tree Planting Act 2003. It

subdivides the sector into five different forest managers namely; National Forest Authority

(NFA) to manage the Central Forest Reserves, the District Forestry Services responsible for the

Local Government Forests/Local Forest Reserves, Community Forests managed by the

community and Forests on private land by the private land owners. The Act also established a

Forest Inspection Division (Forestry Sector Support Department) to provide supportive back-up

to both the NFA and District Forest Services.In addition to managing CFRs, the NFA supplies
forestry products and services to the

public and private sectors as outlined below.

i) Licenses to harvest in Central Forest Reserves;

ii) First class milled timber in various sizes and species;

iii) Local seeds (sold in grams) in all quantities;

iv) Seedlings of pines, eucalyptus imported from Australia, Brazil and South Africa (sold in

grams) for all quantities;

v) Local seedlings from local seeds such as agro forestry seeds, ornamental seedlings;

vi) Grafted fruit trees (varieties of mangoes and oranges);

vii) Land cover maps of 1990s series and the latest 2005 series;

viii) Digital elevation models ideal for hydrological studies and Planning for engineers, rural

planners and landscape designers and tree farmers and;

ix) Consultancy services such as matching, tree planting, forest management and planning

among others Key Products in the sector

Uganda is endowed with various tree species that provide all the desired categories of timber.

The common hard wood species include Chlorophora excelsa, Khaya anthotheca,

Entandroprhagma cylindricum, Entandrophragma util, Feather sepele, E. angolense, Maesopsis

emini, Olea welwitschii, Lovoa brownie, Cynometra alexandri and Newtonia buchanani. The

other available species in the country are the exotic tree species. These species are currently

grown for timber and pole production and these include Pinus patula, Pinus caribaea,
Cupressus

lustanica, Eucalyptus grandis and Eucalyptus globulus The forestry sector grew by 2.6% in
2007/08 an increase from 1.9% in 2006/07. Growth in the

sector is driven by the increasing demand for forestry products particularly the booming

Construction industry and inadequate supply of alternative sources of fuel in Uganda as well as

the neighbouring countries. (Uganda Investment authorit)

(Forestry and Macroeconomic Accounts of Uganda: UNREDD 2018)As natural features in the
landscape, ecosystems provide environmental, social and economic benefits to communities. The
value of ecosystems in providing these services is becoming increasingly evident and there is a
growing recognition of their importance to human well-being. Forests are ecosystems that
represent almost 30% of terrestrial land cover worldwide (3 999 million ha), (Keenan et al. 2015,
FAO 2015) containing 80% of all terrestrial biomass (Shvidenko et al. 2005) providing extensive
benefits from a variety of ecosystem services. Primary (undisturbed natural) forests represent a
third of total forests making them especially significant contributions of ecosystem services
(Foley et al. 2007, Gibson et al. 2011).

Collaborative forest management (CFM) has emerged as a widespread forest management

approach in developing countries (Rasolofoson et al., 2016). Its popularity has been fuelled by a
global call for inclusion of local communities in sustainable forest management (Lemos and
Agrawal, 2006). Being a co-management arrangement, it strives to leverage the strengths of both
the state and community forest management approaches to deliver the twin objectives of forest
conservation and livelihood improvement. More recently, it has been argued to play an important
role in climate mitigation mechanisms such as REDD+ (Pelletier et al., 2016), thus delivering
triple “win-win-win” outcomes in economic, ecological and social aspects (Stern, 2007).

In Uganda, the major promotion of CFM initiatives stemmed from the

country's forest sector governance reforms in the late 1990s. These reforms
dissolved the century-old Forest Department, and created a semi-
autonomous National Forestry Authority (NFA), District Forest Services
(DFS) and the Forest Sector Support Department (initially called Forest
Inspection Division) along with a new forest policy, plan and law (Banana et
al., 2018; Turyahabwe and Banana, 2008) to guide forestry activities in the
country. With the new institutional structures, the sector sought to create
an enabling institutional environment and increase economic and
environmental benefits from forests and trees, particularly for the poor and
vulnerable (Jagger, 2010). CFM and community forestry were the main
approaches envisaged to deliver these benefits (
Under the CFM arrangement, organised community groups enter into
agreements with the government to use and co-manage forest resources in
a specified area of a state forest. The agreements specify the rights, roles,
responsibilities and returns expected from the co-management
arrangement. Thus, it recognizes forest-fringe communities as forest users
whose co-operation can be won by granting them legal access to certain
products or a share in forest-derived benefits (Wily 2001). The ownership of
the forest resources rests with the Government, and only limited powers are
devolved. Typically, the CFM groups are required to regulate forest use and
curb illegal access through patrolling the forest, obtaining forest resources
for subsistence, engaging in non-extractive uses such as beekeeping and
ecotourism and establishing plantations in plantable parts of the forest
reserve. The proceeds from these planted areas belong to the CFM group
members. On the other hand, the community forestry (CF) arrangement is
mostly promoted in forests on public land, that organised local community
groups aggree to manage as common property. Unlike CFM, where
community members are not granted exclusive ownership of the forest, the
CF arrangement grants the registered community forest management
groups such rights (GoU, 2003; Mawa et al., 2021) and the state agency
(DFS) only plays a supervisory role.

Uganda's CFM approach seeks to (i) improve the forest conditions (ii)
regulate forest utilization activities and (iii) enable the forest to contribute
directly to income generation for the communities (Kazoora et al., 2019).
Therefore, upon successful implementation, CFM is expected to expand the
supply of forest products, and enhance access to household capital
assets such as social, human, natural, physical and financial capital
(Akamani and Hall, 2015). These well-articulated win-win outcomes have
spurred an increasing interest in CFM throughout the country. Before the
reforms, only two CFM groups had signed agreements with the Forest
Department during the CFM piloting phase (1998–2004) in the entire
country (Kazoora et al., 2019). However, by December 2019, a total of 44
groups had valid agreements, 23 had expired and 237 were being processed
(MWE, 2020). Thus, there is an increasing popularity and interest in CFM
throughout the country, which is effectively overwhelming the resource-
constrained CFM unit of the NFA (Kazoora et al., 2019). (Mawa, Christopher, Fred
Babweteera, and David Mwesigye Tumusiime. "Livelihood outcomes after two decades of co-managing a
state forest in Uganda." Forest Policy and Economics 135 (2022): 102644.)

Republic of Uganda which lies in East Africa host, bordering to Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya,
South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo (UNDP Annual report, 2023). population of
47249583 in 2022 is a low income country, with projected incerase of 85% to 87622086
(https://data.who.int/countries/800). The average life expectancy of the country in 2021 was 66
years. It is one of the youngest country with population of 74% under the age of 30. It was high
adult unemployment rate with 11.9 percent in 2021. The gross national income was 2241 per
capita and GDP growth was +42 percent in 2021 and 5.2 percent in 2022. The mean years of
Schooling was 6.2 years and expected years of schooling was 11.5 years.Government of Uganda
has made ambitious cliamte action commmitment with participation in Paris Agreement in 2015
to build institutional capacity for nature and climate policy and planning.
(https://data.who.int/countries/800)

Governance is understood as the process and the various structures and mechanisms to deal with
a broad range of issues in which public as well as private actors regularly arrive at mutually
satisfactory and binding decisions by negotiating with each other and co-operating in the
implementation of these decisions. Governing is thus the production and enforcement of
socially-binding decisions in a particular context. The concept of 'good governance' has evolved
from being non-normative to a normative framework, driven by international bodies like the
UNDP, World Bank, and OECD. These principles are now widely applied across various levels
of governance, including local, regional, national, and international contexts. The principles of
good governance emphasize the rule of law, accountability and transparency, participation, and
effectiveness and efficiency. Rametsteiner, E. (2009)

Forest governance is one of the most important factors for ensuring sustainable environmental
management and conservation actions (Bennett & Satterfield, 2018) Whereas Forest governance
contributes to sustainable forest management for guaranteed ecological and economic benefits,
the question of effective forest governance remains lacking. Good forest governance is often
associated with principles such as transparency, participation, and accountability.(Davis et al.,
n.d.). Good forest governance also means that decisions that are made are 'fair, transparent and
just, rights are respected ,laws and rules are enforced equitably, decision-makers are accountable
and decisions are made based on the analysis ofwhat is good for the people and forests (Larson
and Petkova 2011)

Whereas Kibale landscape is renowned for its rich biodiversity and ecological significance, it
faces various governance challenges that impact its conservation and management