The Government of Uganda, through the Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE, Lead Agency, henceforth also ‘the Client’), Ministry of Tourism Wildlife and Antiquities (MTWA), Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) and National Forestry Authority (NFA) is implementing the "Uganda – Investing in Forests and Protected Areas for Climate-Smart Development (IFPA-CD) Project” with funding from the Word Bank and Government of Uganda counterpart funding.

The objective of the project is to promote sustainable management of forests and protected areas with an aim of increasing forestry benefits to communities in the project areas. The project also includes a performance-based subsidy scheme for private forest sector and wood processing development that will be primarily implemented in ‘clusters’ of well-established commercial tree growers (see Section 3.1 below).

The MWE is promoting private sector-led establishment of forest plantations and the development of downstream processing sector value chains in Uganda. This is part of the efforts to increase plantation area through the provision of incentives that aim to expand plantation area, improve quality standards of planting stock, and promote value addition for plantation grown timber. Increasing private sector investment and participation will be key to achieving further development of the forest sector.

The Client intends to hire a consultant firm (or a consortium of firms, henceforth the “Consultant”) to assist with the implementation of this undertaking as defined in these Terms of Reference.