Policy and Institutional Drivers of Deforestation

• Published in: Environmental policy and law Vol. 48; no. 2; pp. 137 - 144
• Main Authors: Tumusiime, David Mwesigye, Byakagaba, Patrick, Tweheyo, Mnason
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 16.07.2018; Copyright Agency Limited (Distributor)
• Subjects: Agricultural production; Biodiversity; Biomass energy; CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species); Climate change; Community; Decentralization; Deforestation; Endangered species; Environmental economics; Environmental management; Forest management; Forestry; Inspection; International trade; Local government; Nature reserves; Net losses; Objectives; Paris Agreement; Policies; Wildlife conservation; Washington DC; Uganda; United States > US; Kampala Uganda
• DOI: 10.3233/EPL-180065
• ISSN: 0378-777X

Uganda is a signatory to a number of multilateral environmental agreements such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, UNFCCC, the Paris Agreement and Kyoto Protocol. The Act consolidated and operationalised both of the forest policies and established three institutions to implement the functions of the Forestry Department which had been disbanded: (i) the NFA, a semi-autonomous agency, with a mandate to manage the Central Forest Reserves (CFRs); (ii) the District Forest Services (DFS) under local government and mandated to manage Local Forest Reserves (LFRs) while at the same time providing forest extension services to local communities and private forest owners; and (iii) the Forest Inspection Division which later transformed into the Forestry Sector Support Department (FSSD) in the Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE) with a regulatory mandate to oversee and coordinate all activities in the forestry sector, including the overseeing of the activities of both the NFA and the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) and formulating policies, regulations and guidelines for the forestry sector (National Forest Plan 2011/12-2021/22). [...]most deforestation has been on private land (see Table 3). According to the global Corruption Perception Index, Uganda was ranked 127th in 2010, 143 in 2011, 130 in 2012, 140 in 2013, 142 in 2014 and 151 in 2016.