UNDP prepares a project on sustainable land management focusing on sustainable charcoal production
Consultative meeting with Kamuli District officials for the UNDP GEF SLM project preparation
There had been a long wait for UNDP to fully constitute and undertake field data collection for preparation of the GEF sustainable land management project component worth over US$ 1.8 million in selected Districts including Kamuli and Nakasongola to address the problem of land degradation due to problems of charcoal production and poor land / resource tenure regimes in the cattle corridor of Uganda.
In October 2008, UNDP established a team to consult with the local leaders, private partners and local communities in the selected districts who directly benefit from charcoal production and land tenure regimes. Some of the major activities involved identification of consultants and resource persons on land/ resource tenure and charcoal as well as setting up expert teams comprising of relevant government ministries (water and environment; lands; energy and agriculture), holding of inception workshop, field work, Joint expert team meetings to receive feedback from the field before compiling the project document for final submission sending to GEF among other procedures.
In both Kamuli and Nakasongola Districts, the team met technical officers from relevant sectors of the District including District Production Directorate, Natural resources, Finance, Planning and Administration as well as Non Government Organizations. There after the team had a debriefing session with the District Political leaders to assess the status of land degradation in relation to charcoal production and land/ resource tenure.
For the community consultations, the team visited two villages namely in Kamuli District namely Nansololo village in Namasagali sub County, Buzaya County and Kasolwe village in Balawoli Sub County in Kamuli District and Wanzogi and Kaleire villages in Kalongo Sub County of Nakasongola District.
The method of data collection were case studies and focus group discussions methods of data collection from the community were used in addition to standard biomass mapping of vegetation to determine the level of land degradation in the surrounding areas.
The data collection team involved 3 Local consultants’ teams for charcoal, land/ resource tenure and community issues, the Government Focal point officer for the Convention on Desertification and the Programme Officer, Environment for UNDP. The charcoal team was the largest of all as it comprised of dons from the Faculty of Forestry and Nature Conservation and a specialist team from National Forest Authority for Biomass mapping.
In both districts the team worked closely with a Focal Point officer appointed by the Chief Administrative Officer to coordinate the exercise, the District Natural Resource Officer in Kamuli and District Environment Officer in Nakasongola. At the Community level the team liaised with the Local Council 1 and 2 chairmen and interviewed opinion leaders in addition to holding meetings with the community.
Consultations with District authorities and communities revealed an urgent need and demand to address the problem land degradation through this project during the field data collection exercise. Some of the major causes for land degradation given by the local communities were over harvesting of trees for charcoal, massive demand of charcoal in urban areas, lack of quick alternative income generating activities for local people, increasing populations, poor (local) government regulatory and enforcement mechanisms, negative political tendencies, un clear land/ tenure policies and lack of sensitization among others.
As a way forward, all the reports are expected to be compiled into the GEF project document for submission to UNDP, GEF and GoU for the approval process and subsequent project implementation hopefully by early 2009.
Consultations with District authorities and communities revealed an urgent need and demand to address the problem land degradation through this project during the field data collection exercise. Some of the major causes for land degradation given by the local communities were over harvesting of trees for charcoal, massive demand of charcoal in urban areas, lack of quick alternative income generating activities for local people, increasing populations, poor (local) government regulatory and enforcement mechanisms, negative political tendencies, un clear land/ tenure policies and lack of sensitization among others. 
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