Browsing by Author "Opige, Michael"

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    Addressing threats to biodiversity and ecosystems services in agricultural landscapes: Lessons from tobacco growing areas of Middle North - Uganda
    (NatureUganda, 2015) Opige, Michael; Bataamba Muhweezi, Alex; Kisakye, Jonathan; Dhakal, Balram
    There is increasing pressure on ecosystems across Uganda, mainly from growing population. Uganda’s population was about 2 million in 1900, rising to 4.8 million in 1950 and to 24.3 million in 2002 (UBOS, 2002) and it is now estimated at over 37 million (New Vision, June 23, 2013). The management of ecosystems and landscapes in the context of this increasing population requires a lot of planning for resource use and conservation yet there are inadequate extension services to help increase agricultural production per unit area while ensuring a healthy resource base (FAO, 2010). In particular, the northern region of Uganda which suffered from a civil war from 1985/6 to 2007 is facing rapidly increasing population after the return of stability. This has not only resulted into significant destruction of natural resources or biomass but has also put pressure on remaining natural resources.
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    An assessment of the impacts of oil palm in Kalangala and Buvuma
    (Ecological Trends Alliance Texts, 2019) Ssemmanda, Richard; Opige, Michael
    The Government of Uganda had the best intentions when oil palm was established. The aim was to reduce poverty among the Lake Victoria island populations of Kalangala and Buvuma districts, and contribute to import substitution through domestic production of palm oil. The project established plantations in Kalangala in 2002 with crude palm oil production starting in 2010, and plantations will begin to be established in Buvuma from 2019. The benefits are readily reported by the main donor IFAD and the sole company BIDCO, part of Oil Palm Uganda Ltd. partly owned by Wilmar. However, the project implementation strategy fell short on a number of aspects, leading to multiple negative impacts on the intended project beneficiaries as well as on the environment. It is thus crucial to acknowledge and better understand these impacts, mitigate them, and prevent their reoccurrence in the other suggested oil palm expansion hubs. This section summarizes detailed interdisciplinary research undertaken in 2017 and 2018 (Ssemmanda and Opige 2018, 2019) on the negative impacts of oil palm development, and makes solid recommendation to the government and its implementing partners, based on the findings and lessons learned. The five research papers that this is based on are included in full in the following sections, and are each summarized in separate policy briefs (Bigirwa et al., 2019; Kakungula-Mayambala and Tibugwisa., 2019; Masiga et al., 2019; Mwima et al., 2019; Nangendo et al., 2019).