Environment Mainstreaming and Developing Sustainable Land Management in the Cattle Corridor of Uganda
Background
Land degradation is widespread and most pronounced in the drylands, which stretch along a southwest-northeast diagonal across the country. This is popularly known as the ‘cattle corridor’, which ranges from the south-western areas of Mbarara, Sembabule and Rakai Districts through the mid-central Districts of Soroti, Kumi and Nakasongola, to the north-east, in the Karamoja region. The drylands - covering approximately 84,000 km2 of the country’s land area - account for some 90% of the national cattle herd. Land degradation has led to lowering of economic livelihood options and increased poverty among pastoralists and agro-pastoralists alike. This consequently leads to slower attainment of many of the MDGs.
Development objectives
The objective of this project is to improve management of the drylands ecosystems and enhance their integrity through improved policy implementation, mainstreaming of environment into the district development planning processes, strategic capacity building, and demonstration initiatives for improved land and resource use in the cattle corridor, with a view to improving ecosystem health, and enhancing the sustainable livelihoods of Uganda’s dryland communities.
Key activities & expected results
The project, based upon a participatory process, is to consult with stakeholders to develop a project to effectively respond to the challenges of land degradation, including building capacity for better management of rangelands in the cattle corridor. This is envisaged to result in enhanced capacity of dryland communities to apply the appropriate knowledge, skills and know-how for sustainable land management.
Implementation phase
The project undertook a participatory project design process, which initially focused on Sembabule Districts. For the past 2 years 2007 to 2008, UNDP, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF), supported Sembabule District to further mainstream drylands issues into their district planning systems through integrating drylands issues into District Environment Action Plan (DEAP). As further contribution to integration of environmental concerns into planning systems, the CO working with MAAIF and Sembabule District authorities, prepared guidelines for integrating Sustainable Land Management concerns into the district development plans. This process also involved capacity development at community level were community DEAP facilitators were trained as the key drivers of the environment planning process at the community level. In Nakasongola District, intensive consultations to develop interventions on land and rangeland management and on sustainable charcoal production were conducted. The results of the consultations were used in creating awareness about sustainable land management.
This project has also supported the initial preparatory activities for up scaling through the design of a project a three year project on sustainable land management within the cattle corridor of Uganda. The project has two components the first focusing on mainstreaming and implementation of SLM activities in 6 Districts of the cattle corridor comprising of Sembabule, Lyantonde, Nakaseke, Nakasongola, Kamuli and Kaliro funded by Government of Norway through the UNDP Dry lands Development Centre to a tune of 1.8 m US$ and the second component focusing on sustainable charcoal production and land/ resource tenure starting with 2 districts of Nakasongola and Kamuli funded by GEF to a tune of over US$ 1.8 million. The project document for the first component has been finalized while that for the second component is in advanced stages.
