Financing forest conservation in Uganda

Abstract

The Institute of Tropical Forest Conservation (ITFC) is a small but dynamic research station of Mbarara University of Science and Technology and is located on the edge of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP or Bwindi), a World Heritage site in southwest Uganda. The area has numerous endemic species and half the world’s mountain gorillas (Gorilla berengei berengei), which have attracted a valuable tourist trade. The wider region is poor and densely populated (about 600 people per km2); people mainly depend on subsistence agriculture. Forest cover stops abruptly at the park boundary — most forest outside the park has been lost.