Uganda’s REDD+ Strategy and Action Plan is intended to help to improve the status of forest resources, mitigate climate change effects, promote fair and balanced benefits including gender consideration and the welfare of communities in general and forest dependent indigenous communities. In addition, the REDD+ Strategy and Action Plan will improve the existing negative perceptions, attitudes and practices by forest, trees, and climate change management stakeholders and this will among others, contribute to sustainable socioeconomic development.

Third Grant Agreement for the Republic Of Uganda’s Additional REDD+ Readiness Preparation Support Project (Tf0a5722) (July 2017- December 2019)

This report summarizes the achievements of this work titled ‘Updating the Ecological Baseline and the Socio-economic Data for Six Central Forest Reserves(Mabira, Namakupa, Nandagi, Kalagala Falls, Namawanyi and Namananga) and Updating the Management Plan for Mabira Central Forest Reserve’.

The report is a technical documentation of the ecoSurvey Management Information System a tool design to automate the social economic, ecological and water survey for Ministry of water and the various agencies that interface with it. It allows the user capture results of the survey. The system can be hosted on an online environment/ webserver so that authorised users of the system can access if from anywhere as long as they have the rights to log into the system.

This report is written to update the ecological baseline information for the Mabira ecosystem. Inevitably, the bulk of the ecological baseline data is comprised of biodiversity data. Biodiversity is a word that is now more common than it was at the time of the first Forest Department Biodiversity inventories in the 1990s. It describes the variety of life at all levels of organisation from ecosystems to species/organisms and genes.

The Mabira Forest Ecosystem is globally recognised for its importance in the conservation of biodiversity and protection of the watershed. Human and wildlife populations around the Lake Victoria basin derive their livelihoods from the Mabira Forest Ecosystem. It is therefore an area of high priority for the Ministry of Water and Environment in as far as livelihoods and ecosystem health are concerned. It is necessary for the National Forestry Authority.

Mabira Management Plan Area is made up of six(6) forests namely Mabira, Namakupa, Nandagi,Kalagala Falls, Namawanyi and Namananga.

Socio-Economic Baseline for Communities around the Six Central Forest Reserves

This National Forest Plan has been developed by Forestry Sector Support Department (FSSD) with financial support from FAO-NFP facility and FAO-Technical Support programme (TCP) grant to address the deteriorating situation in the forestry sector. It is a contribution to the implementation of the National Development Plan (2010) which placed forestry at the centre of Uganda’s development agenda by categorizing it as a primary growth sector.