Linking Protected Area Conservation with Poverty Alleviation In Uganda: Integrated Conservation And Development at Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

Abstract

This chapter we seek to review the Ugandan context of conservation-poverty linkages and evaluate ICD at Bwindi as a tool for achieving conservation through poverty alleviation. By identifying lessons learnt from Uganda and Bwindi, our aim is to improve the policy and practice of linking national park conservation with poverty alleviation, particularly to overcome challenges inherent in the ICD approach of reaching the poor and marginalized.Our starting point, in section 3, is to examine historical trends in natural resource management from pre-colonial to the post-independence period when national parks were first established in Uganda. We also assess the legacy of past management regimes on current issues faced by national park managers. In section 4, we analyse the Ugandan policy framework of national park conservation and poverty alleviation and, from this framework, identify the outcomes that national park managers must achieve. In section 5 we introduce our study site of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, present a conceptual framework of the ICD approach at Bwindi and illustrate the framework by describing the Multiple Use Programme, which has been heralded a success in conflict resolution through collaborative management agreements with local resource user groups. In section 6 we present our first study: a retrospective analysis of interactions between local people and law enforcement rangers as indicators of conflict and local support for conservation at Bwindi. Here we explore drivers of conflict and the factors that engendered local support for the national park during a five-year period (1996-2000) after ICD interventions were first implemented. In section 7 we present our second study: perceptions of local communities regarding governance issues of projects implemented by a major ICD practitioner at Bwindi. Finally, in section 8, we review the lessons learnt from Uganda and Bwindi in the context of forthcoming change to Bwindi’s ICD. We then draw conclusions on the design and implementation of ICD to link national park conservation with poverty alleviation.To achieve conservation goals, reducing unauthorized resource use is often a targetof ICD. In this context we define unauthorized resource use as any form of resource harvesting that is not in line with laws or management regulations or conducted without a legal permit. We also define unauthorized resource use not in terms of criminality but as an indicator. Firstly of the different needs and uses of a national park by people: for forest access, to use natural resources and to meet cultural and traditional needs. Secondly of the governance challenges and limitations of national park management to balance people's uses and needs with biodiversity conservation aims