Browsing by Author "Watts, S."

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Local organisations and decentralised forest management in Uganda: roles, challenges and policy implications
    (International Forestry Review, 2007) Turyahabwe, N.; Geldenhuys, C. J.; Watts, S.; Obua, J.
    Policy and legal changes in Uganda have partly devolved forest management from the central to local governments and local community organisations. This paper analyses the roles, responsibilities, powers, legal instruments and incentives for local organisations that are implementing decentralised forest governance in Uganda. Semi-structured questionnaires and key informant interviews of 236 respondents revealed that local organisations promoted decentralised forestry functions such as forest monitoring, making of forest byelaws, tree planting, environmental education, collaborative and integrated planning and budgeting. Donor and central government fiscal support, awareness of forest degradation, understanding the role of forestry and the desire to conserve forests motivated local organisations to participate in decentralised forest management. Lack of a clear policy on ownership and control of private forest resources, inadequate fiscal support from national government, inequitable distribution of benefits and inadequate delegation of decision-making powers over forest management to local actors have hindered full implementation of decentralised forest management. The central government should empower local government authorities and support organisations to effectively implement decentralised forest management in Uganda.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Technical and institutional capacity in local organisations to manage decentralised forest resources in Uganda
    (Southern African Forestry Journal, 2006) Turyahabwe, N.; Geldenhuys, C.J.; Watts, S.; Banana, A.Y.
    Uganda is one of the sub-Saharan African countries that has devolved the management of forest resources. Meaningful devolution, however, requires that local governments and other community organisations should have capacity in terms of adequate and competent human resources, finance, information, skills, and the appropriate legal framework to effectively deliver services. This paper examines the technical and institutional capacity in selected local organisations to manage decentralised forest resources in Uganda. We found that technical and institutional capacity to implement decentralised forest governance exists in local organisations through partnerships with other actors in the productive use of the available resources. Local organisations mobilised and managed human, physical and financial resources for decentralised forest management. They also demonstrated the capacity to make and implement integrated plans and budgets and formulated byelaws regulating forest use. Our findings, however, revealed that none of the organisations had either the legal mandate or sufficient human and physical resources to govern forest resources unilaterally due to inadequate devolution of decision-making powers and inadequate fiscal support from the central government. The findings suggest a need for local organisations to recruit more technical staff, strengthen internal sources of revenue and networking amongst organisations both at local and national government levels for effective management of decentralised forest resources.