In Uganda, there are various collaborative arrangements for forest management. The stakeholders involved in these arrangements include individuals, local community groups, private tree growers (companies and individuals), forest management institutions, forest owners, institutions (research, academic, traditional/cultural and religious), CSOs, corporate bodies and development partners.
Under these arrangements, the degree to which the partners have the power to control and manage forest resources or forest land varies depending on the type of collaboration. Collaborative arrangements in the management of forest resources entails roles and responsibilities for the parties involved.
Where possible, these roles and responsibilities should be commensurate with the benefits accrued to the different parties under different collaborative arrangements.
These guidelines provide for different processes to be followed under different collaborative arrangements with different forest management institutions, forest owners and stakeholders as detailed in sections 3.1 and 3.2. Whatever the collaborative arrangement is, the process will culminate in a mutually enforceable memorandum of understanding or CFM agreement.
In forest reserves, the process of initiating and implementing CFM will be between the forest management institution and the local community.
It is expected that before initiation, the local communities interested in CFM are organized into a registered Community Based Organisation (CBO) eligible for partnering with a forest management institution (see Guidance Box 2 criteria for CBO eligibility).
However, if there is no registered group, the local community can apply for CFM and ensure that they are registered before signing the CFM agreement. The community should obtain support from the CFM facilitator, forest management institution and the CDO in their respective local government to register and strengthen their CBO in line with the eligibility criteria in Guidance Box 2.
GUIDANCE BOX 2
CRITERIA FOR CBO ELIGIBILITY
The CBO should:
• Be registered at the district or sub-county level and where possible have a physical office and clear records of their business;
• Have wider objectives focusing on community development initiatives like water, sanitation, energy, agriculture, land use planning, housing, environment, business, savings and loans etc.;
• Have a constitution or articles of association clearly spelling out mechanisms for effective, accountable and democratic governance which also guard against corrupt practices, (see annex I on contents of the CBO constitution);
• Be open to more recruitment of members up to parish or sub-county level;
• Should be non-discriminatory and inclusive in who can participate and become a member – being open to everyone – i.e. men, women, youth, elderly, PWDs, indigenous minorities etc.;
• Not be a one-person or family led group or CBO;
• Have leadership which should be inclusive, gender sensitive and act with integrity;
• Have effective provisions for regular change of its leadership.
Stage 1: Initiation stage Objectives and outputs
The objectives and output of the initiation stage are:
i. To demonstrate interest and commitment by the parties through the CFM application process,
ii. To create awareness and build capacity of the local community to understand the opportunities in CFM,
iii. To ensure effective multistakeholder participation through joint planning and training.
Activities under initiation stage
1.1 Expression of interest to start CFM in a forest reserve
The expression of interest, to start CFM in a forest reserve, can be done by the forest management institution or a registered local community group.
a) The forest management institution expresses interest to start CFM in a forest reserve
• The forest management institution writes to the community leadership, with copies to the relevant LG offices especially the CDO and DNRO / DFO, expressing interest to partner with the community in managing the FR or part of it, with clear objectives and a copy of the CFM guidelines attached.
• On receipt of the copy of expression of interest, the community leadership calls for a community meeting to seek their opinion regarding the request by the forest management institution. During this meeting, the community may seek the guidance of the CDO before responding to the request of the forest management institution.
• Thereafter, the community leadership responds appropriately (i.e ‘yes, please’, ‘no thank you’ or ‘give us more time to think it through’)
• If the community is in agreement with the request of the forest management institution, the community leadership requests the CDO, in writing, to guide on the representative community institutions to partner with the forest management institution;
• The CDO, the staff of the forest management institution and a facilitator, if available, carry out a preliminary assessment of the existing community institutions eligible to apply for CFM (See Guidance Box 2: Criteria for CBO eligibility);
• The CDO with advice from the staff of forest management institution endorses the eligible community institution to partner with the forest management institution or supports the community to strengthen an existing group or agree to support the community to register a new community institution to be eligible to partner with the forest management institution before the signing stage of the CFM agreement;
• After consulting with the group members, the registered community institution or community group responds to the forest management institution appropriately, in writing, preferably within one month, with copies to the relevant political and civic leaders at sub-county and district levels.
N.B:
i) The community institution should keep all its documents regarding the communication with the forest management institution and their meetings for record purposes.
ii) The forest management institution staff, the CDO and the facilitator should avoid making unrealistic promises throughout the process.
b) The registered community institution/group expresses interest to start CFM in a forest reserve
• The community leadership requests the facilitator in writing, to guide on the process of expressing interest in CFM;
• The facilitator approaches the forest management institution for guidance on the CFM process including requesting for a copy of the guidelines.
• The facilitator carries out a preliminary assessment of the existing community institutions for eligibility for CFM (See Guidance Box 2: Criteria for eligibility);
• In the event that, the parties (forest management institution and applicants) do not have a facilitator, the forest management institution shall lead in facilitating the process.
• The facilitator approves the eligible community institution or strengthens an existing community institution or supports the community to register a new community institution to be eligible to partner with the forest management institution;
• The community institution or community group writes to the forest management institution expressing interest to partner with it in managing the FR or part of it with clear objectives through the relevant LG offices; (See Annex 2);
• The forest management institution should carry out due diligence to ascertain the authenticity of the applicant and status of the proposed area or the entire forest to be co-managed before responding (See Guidance Box 3: Criteria for carrying out due diligence for CFM applicants);
• The forest management institution responds appropriately (see last bullet Guidance Box 3), in writing, preferably within one month with copies to the relevant offices both political and civic.
GUIDANCE BOX 3
CRITERIA FOR CARRYING OUT DUE DILIGENCE FOR CFM APPLICANTS
• Assess the suitability of the CFM applicant using the CBO eligibility criteria set out in Guidance Box 2 above with support of the CDO;
• Analyze the proposed community objectives to ensure they do not contradict with the forest management objectives;
• Refer to the forest management plan to ascertain if the proposed area is suitable for CFM;
• Ensure that the CFM applicants are from the local community. A local community member is defined as being person who has lived in the Parish for not less than two years, and who must be known and accepted by local authorities and neighbours as being part of their community.
• Ascertain that the proposed area is conflict free i.e. there are no claims of land ownership and there are no other partnerships that would result in conflict.
• Where the area applied for is not suitable for CFM, the forest management institution can propose an alternative site.
• Where the forest management institution has one or more concerns about the applicant, and considers it ill advised to move their application forward, the applicant should be informed about the concern(s) and be allowed the opportunity to address them.
However, if the forest management institution believes beyond reasonable doubt that the concerns are genuine and not addressable, the application should not be considered further.
1.2 Entry / initial meetings
• The facilitator does a rapid stakeholder analysis to determine the relevant actors within one month following receipt of the response from the forest management institution. (See Guidance Box 4: Suggested participants list for CFM entry meeting).;
• The process facilitator and forest management institution organize a district level meeting with relevant actors to introduce stakeholders to the CFM process.
• During the initial meetings, stakeholders develop a road map / work plan for the process, agree on the roles and responsibilities of the different stakeholders and the benefits of undertaking or participating in the process.
NB:
i) The number and categories of participants in the entry meeting will vary from district to district depending on whether CFM is being introduced in the district for the first time or a CFM entry meeting has not been held in the current political cycle. This means that there is a high chance that at least some office holders have not encountered CFM previously.
ii) In order to cut the costs of the initial meetings, cost-saving approaches can be used such as holding meetings in the afternoon, using council halls instead of hiring hotel venues, holding meetings with local district councils when they are already scheduled to meet, holding meetings for shorter periods of a maximum of two hours etc
GUIDANCE BOX 4
SUGGESTED PARTICIPANTS FOR ENTRY MEETING
• Staff of the forest management institutions (Partnership officer, relevant field level forest managers/officers)
• District Natural Resources staff (DNRO, DFO, District Environment Officer)
• District Production and Marketing staff (District Agriculture Officer, District Commercial Officer,)
• Chief Administrative Officer
• Resident District Commissioner (RDC)
• Political leaders (District Chairperson, LIII Chairperson, councillors)
• Community Based Services (DCDO, SCDO)
• Resident State Attorney
• Relevant CSO/CBO staff working in the area
• The representatives of the applicant CBO
• Opinion leaders (cultural/traditional and religious leaders)
• Any other relevant stakeholders such as representatives of other government initiatives – especially those which are opportunities for resource mobilisation in the future.
The forest management institution, district and sub-county leaders nominate technical staff and political representatives that will participate in the subsequent stages of the CFM process at community level;
A multi-stakeholder planning team is composed and commissioned at this stage with clear roles and responsibilities (See Guidance Box 5: Composition and suggested roles/responsibilities of the planning team)
N.B: The entry / initial meetings should be organized within one (1) month after approval of the expression of interest.
GUIDANCE BOX 5
SUGGESTED MULTI-STAKEHOLDER PLANNING TEAM & THEIR ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Planning team composition:
• Field staff of the forest management institution
• DFO/DNRO
• District Community Development Officer (DCDO)
• Sub-county local government representatives (SCDO, Councillor from applicant community)
• CSO representative
• Local community representatives
• Any other relevant stakeholder
Roles and responsibilities of the planning team
• Process facilitator to lead the planning team
• Conduct community awareness on CFM;
• Participate in capacity building trainings on CFM;
• Carry out participatory situation analysis (both in and out of the forest, socio-economic and environmental assessments) and produce a participatory situation analysis (PSA) report with preliminary recommendations; with the participation of other stakeholders;
• Participate in the negotiation process and produce a draft CFM agreement and plan;
• Provide feedback on the process including the PSA report and the draft CFM agreements and plans to the LG, community, forest management institution and other stakeholders and obtain feedback to improve the PSA Report, CFM agreement and plan.
1.3 Community awareness creation and capacity building on CFM
• The forest management institution / facilitator / LG conduct community meetings and use any other channels (e.g. radio, public notice boards, announcements) to create awareness about CFM targeting communities close to forest reserve;
• The facilitator organizes a meeting for the community institution (CBO) to select community representatives to join the multi-stakeholder planning team;
• The forest management institution / facilitator organizes and conducts a CFM introductory workshop (2-3days) for the multi-stakeholder planning team members. The team members should include CFM group representatives, LC council (LC 1-III) leaders, religious and cultural leaders, forest management institution staff and other relevant stakeholders.
The topics and sessions for the training should be drawn from the CFM training manual. The facilitator together with the forest management institution should look for innovative ways of reducing costs like conducting the trainings in the afternoon when people have had their lunch or selecting only the most important sessions/topics for a given group of participants
Stage 2: Participatory situation analysis
The CFM implementation process will employ a landscape approach. This will involve conducting a situation analysis both out of the forest and in the forest to inform the subsequent stages of the CFM process.
The scale and scope of this analysis will depend on the forest area, resources for which the CFM agreement and plan is being developed and the socio-economic conditions outside of the forest.
The level, type of analysis and tools to be used will depend on the local situation and experience of the planning team. It is recommended that the capacity of the planning team be built to enable them carry out the situation analysis effectively.
It is important to note that the participatory situation analysis should be repeated on subsequent review and renewal of each CFM agreement, and also form part of the mid-term review of the agreement as needed.
The suggestions provided below on how to conduct the analysis and tools are not applicable in all situations. Therefore, it will be upon the planning team to choose the relevant and most suitable approaches and tools to be used.
There needs to be a balance between rapid participatory approaches to resource inventory and the detailed scientific methods to ascertain the distribution and abundance of the resources.
Where commercial harvesting of resources is to be undertaken or the demand for forest resources for subsistence is very high, detailed forest inventories will need to be carried out and costs borne by the forest management institution. Whatever resource assessment approach is used, the local communities must be involved appropriately.
Objectives
The objectives of carrying out participatory situation analysis are:
i. To identify the socio-economic, environmental, physical and institutional set up of the local community;
ii. To understand the resource use patterns and values that local communities attach to the forest resources;
iii. To determine the existing stock of forest resources and condition of the forest; iv. To identify the forest users and other interested parties (stakeholders) who can influence or will be influenced by the management of the forest.
Outputs
i. Participatory situation analysis/baseline report
ii. All stakeholders and facilitators of the process are aware of the context for CFM
Activities
The main activities that will be undertaken under the participatory situation analysis are:
• Conducting a participatory out-of-forest socio-economic and environmental assessment. This should be conducted in the geographical area where the community group draws membership. This could be a village (s), parish(es) or sub-county. (See Guidance Box 6 on out of forest data checklist and Annex 3).
• Conducting a participatory in-forest assessment
2.1 The planning team conducts participatory out-of-forest socio-economic and environmental assessment in the landscape.
• Review and customize appropriate tools for data collection. Some of the aspects to assess are given in Guidance Box 6 on the data checklist for conducting an out of forest PSA.
GUIDANCE BOX 6
OUT OF FOREST PSA DATA CHECKLIST
• Religious and cultural practices,
• Existing and potential conflicts,
• CFM in relation to development programmes e.g. oil & gas,
• Climate change,
• Stakeholders,
• Government programmes in the area;
• Forest threats;
• Economic value of forest resources used at household level;
• Infrastructure development;
• Population and ethnicity,
• Gender,
• Education,
• Health, sanitation and hygiene,
• Types, location and condition of water sources,
• Economic activities,
• Energy use,
• Land ownership and land use practices,
• Markets,
• Opportunities for environment and community development;
Conduct participatory socio-economic and environmental assessment in the landscape (See Annex 3).
Identify and document preliminary positions, interests of different parties and recommendations to be further agreed upon during negotiations.
Analyze data and produce a socio-economic and environmental assessment report.
2.2 The planning team conducts participatory in-forest assessment
• Review and customize appropriate tools for data collection. Some of the aspects to assess are given in Guidance Box 7 on a data checklist for conducting in - forest PSA.
• Conduct the participatory in-forest resource assessment using appropriate tools including GIS where applicable. A participatory resource assessment (PRA) resource book containing the appropriate tools will be required for this purpose.
• Identify and document preliminary positions, interests of different parties and recommendations to be further agreed upon during negotiations;
• Analyze the data collected and produce an in-forest resources assessment report
GUIDANCE BOX 7:
IN-FOREST PSA DATA CHECKLIST
• Status of the forest;
• Whether the forest and CFM area has been sufficiently zoned and if not, how it should be.
• Types of resources;
• Location and distribution of resources (mapping);
• Quantities and quality of resources (stock);
• Resource replenishment mechanisms;
• Economic value of resources;
• Current threats to resources and level of degradation;
• Current off-take levels;
• Current allowable utilizable quantities as per the forest management plan;
• Modalities of resource access. (e.g. legal, illegal, open or restricted access, timing (day, night etc.).
NB. The methods for harvesting and utilization of the various forest products identified in PSA report will be in accordance with the prescriptions of the forest management plan, existing relevant guidelines and technical advice within the forest management institution.
2.3 Presenting PSA report to the forest management institutions, district, sub-county and community stakeholders
• The facilitator organizes a meeting to disseminate the findings of the PSA report starting with the stakeholders at sub-county and later at the district level, including the forest management institutions for comments, input and buy-in.
Note that:
a) The district level meeting should involve the stakeholders in Guidance Box 4.
b) Key findings from the PSA report should be translated into the local language(s) and presented to the local communities.
• During the meeting, the stakeholders should review and upgrade the planning team into a negotiation team clearly defining the interest group each member is representing. See Guidance Box 8 on membership criteria for the negotiation team;
• Incorporate the comments from the stakeholders’ meeting and finalize the report for use in the negotiation.
• Distribute copies of the final PSA report to the forest management institutions, community institution (translated summary of key findings) and LG, which should be kept for reference as a baseline during routine monitoring and evaluation of the CFM agreement and plan.
The entire PSA should be conducted within a period of two (2) months after community awareness creation and capacity building on CFM.
GUIDANCE BOX 8
MEMBERSHIP CRITERIA FOR THE NEGOTIATION TEAM
• Representatives of the forest management institution should be at decision making level (e.g forest manager/officer, DFO);
• Local government representatives (e.g DFO, LCIII, parish level councillors, sub county CDO (SCDO), DCDO);
• CBO representatives (Chairman, Secretary, heads of resource user groups, vulnerable groups);
• Representatives of cultural and religious leaders;
• CSO representative;
• Any other relevant stakeholder.
Stage 3. Negotiation and consensus building
The aim of this stage, is to define and agree on the shared forest management objectives, roles and responsibilities of each party, benefit sharing mechanisms and the do’s, don’ts.
It is also to agree on the legal and customary rights which each party has or does not have e.g. the right to dispose of forest land or use it as collateral, the livelihood options and linkages with other government programmes, feedback and conflict redress mechanisms and monitoring and evaluation, reviews and renewals.
The negotiation on benefit sharing should be anchored on the existing broader benefit sharing policy and practice of the forest management institution and GoU (e.g. REDD+ benefit sharing).
The negotiation and consensus building should be undertaken by a negotiation team, which should consist of members of the multi-stakeholder planning team with more members co-opted as deemed necessary. Most importantly, the forest management institutions, LG and CFM applicant, must adequately be represented by people who can make binding decisions.
A facilitator spearheads this third stage. Ideally, a neutral facilitator should lead the whole CFM process. However, if any of the parties expresses dissatisfaction with the facilitator or lack of confidence in him/her, then bringing in a new facilitator for the negotiations or at any other stage of the process may be necessary.
Objectives
The objectives of negotiation and consensus building are:
i. To define the objectives and strategies for effective management of forest resources;
ii. To reach consensus on the roles, responsibilities and benefits of stakeholders involved in CFM;
iii. To identify alternative community livelihood options to be implemented and existing linkages with other government programmes so as to reduce pressure on the forest resources;
iv. To agree on the feedback and conflict redress mechanisms among the parties in the CFM agreement;
v. Agree on the duration of the CFM Agreement and plan based on the objectives.
Outputs of negotiations and consensus building
i. The process report on all the stages of the CFM process from stage 1 to stage 3;
ii. CFM agreement and plan signed by all parties;
iii. Participatory monitoring and evaluation plan;
Activities
Negotiation and consensus building will include the following activities:
• Selecting a representative multi-stakeholder negotiation team;
• Presenting a summary of the PSA findings to inform the negotiations
• Drawing up a participatory negotiation plan and budget (the main parties can share costs of the budget);
• Conducting primary negotiations to produce the draft CFM plan, agreement and participatory monitoring and evaluation plan (See Annex 5: How to negotiate and draft the CFM plan; Annexes 6, 7 a, b and 8: Structure and content of the CFM plan, CFM agreements/samples and M&E plan templates respectively). These primary negotiations should take 2-3days;
• Conducting a stakeholder meeting, preferably at sub-county or district level, to present the negotiated draft CFM agreement(s) and plan(s) for comments and input;
• Presenting the CFM agreements and plans to the applicant community so that all the members are aware of the content in fulfilment of the principle of free and prior informed consent (FPIC);
• Revising and finalizing the negotiated CFM agreement and plan through addressing comments, concerns, gaps/omissions;
• Signing the CFM agreement including the CFM and M&E Plans.
The signing of the CFM agreement will be the climax of negotiation and consensus building. The agreement shall be signed by; the chairperson of the CFM group, district chairperson or his/her representative, and the chief executive officer of the forest management institution or their authorized representative as the main signatories.
The agreement shall be witnessed by the legal counsels of the main parties, members of the CFM group and other stakeholders present – including district technical natural resource management staff - who will all sign the attendance list, which will be appended to the agreement.
The signing of the agreements should be publicized and should take place in a welladvertised public meeting open to the entire community. It is important to note that the signing of the CFM agreement should be a simple function and last a short time, so as to save resources for actual implementation of the planned CFM activities.
N.B: i) The negotiation and consensus-building stage should take at most 1 month and should be conducted at least 2 weeks after presentation of PSA report.
ii) The period of the agreement should be for a fixed 10-year period subsequently renewable, with a probationary period of 2 years and a mid-term review after 5 years.
Stage 4: Implementation of CFM agreement
This is the stage for implementing the negotiated CFM plan and agreement. It also involves a series of capacity building events to enable the parties to implement the planned activities.
Implementation of the CFM agreement should be flexible and informed by continuous learning and modification of the agreed work plan where necessary.
CFM activities should be implemented using a landscape approach to address the socio-economic, environmental and forest management issues at community level to improve community livelihoods and reduce pressure on the forest resource base.
The agreements will be tripartite in nature (i.e. between the forest management institution, the district local government and the community group). However, the management institution will take full responsibility to facilitate, advise and guide the community groups in implementation of the CFM agreement and plan unless otherwise delegated to an implementing NGO or other partner as mutually agreed.
The institution will also budget for CFM activities especially those within their mandate and also mobilize other stakeholders such as local government and NGOs to play their role.
The district local government will also be responsible and take lead in effective and efficient implementation of socio-economic/alternative livelihood activities prescribed in the CFM plan especially those within their mandate.
These among others may include extension services related to improved land management to increase production; livestock and crop husbandry practices; conservation of wetlands and forests outside forest reserves etc.
The local government will automatically take lead in the implementation of CFM agreements in LFRs and coordinate other players involved in CFM processes in the district.
The community groups on the other hand will be expected to adhere to the provisions of the CFM agreements and actively participate in the implementation of activities set out in the CFM plan while at the same time utilizing the advice, guidance, and support from both forest management institution and the local government.
Additionally, the CFM group will mobilise resources locally – especially through / from local government.