GIS based information systems have become critical for management of forest resources to meet a variety of objectives that encompass biodiversity, climate, economic production, and the wellbeing of forest dependent communities. For these purposes, a National Forest Management Information System (NFMIS) is important for RFM. Subsets of the NFMIS may include, but should not be limited to the following:
• NFA Forest Information Management System (still under development); with a Module for entering FMU information by field staff
• National Forest Monitoring System for specific purposes like carbon emissions reductions, biomass changes, etc.
• Tree Farmer Management System – tracking the activities of tree planting in FRs and on private lands. Being developed jointly by NFA and SPGS
• Landuse and land cover management information system
• National GHG Reporting system
• Forest Management Information Systems of the private commercial timber plantation companies
• Licensing and Private Tree Planters databases for CFRs being refined and updated
Instruction 526: A national forest management information system shall be designed and developed in a modular way, modules being added, as financial and skills resources become available. In fact, it is not desirable, from an institutional capacity point of view, to develop all the foreseeable modules at once. Therefore, FSSD and NFA should jointly plan for development of these information systems over the medium term (3-5 years).
Instruction 527: The NFMIS shall utilise national layers such as administrative boundaries, infrastructure, social services for purposes of orientation and referencing data and information relevant to the SFP
Instruction 528: The NFMIS should be designed to function in such a way that NFA is responsible for the central database which receives and processes information, while FSSD has full access rights to the processed materials so that it can produce national statistics in real time. The development process shall proceed in tandem with the process of building capacity to operate and sustain each system, and develop protocols to ensure that the different systems talk to each other.
Instruction 529: The NFMIS shall be designed to contain a primary server (the main working server) which is open to staff and the public with specific access privileges, and a secondary server which is accessible to only a few people at NFA and MWE. Should there be problems with the primary server, the data can be retrieved from the secondary server. The two servers have appropriate synchronization times so that the data on the primary server can be fed into the secondary server. There shall be a public portal which is freely available to the public
Instruction 530: Of high importance, but often taken lightly, is a module for FMU/ Community activities, including those in urban areas, so that information collected at the lowest unit (compartment/ community level) can be uploaded and processed by the central database. This FMU/ community level module shall be developed so that most of the aspects of forest management at compartment level are entered in a FMU module that is linked to the central database. Information shall be collected by FMU and DFO’s staff, recorded in user friendly formats (e.g. excel spreadsheets, shape files for GIS, GPS coordinates, etc.), and uploaded into the module which shall be hooked into the NFMIS controlled centrally at Headquarters. Procedures for verifying information coming from FMU staff shall be designed into the NFMIS
Instruction 531: On the other hand, FMU/ community actors shall have access rights to certain information so that they can get it in real time, mostly through their phones.
Instruction 532: Another important input into the NFMIS is information from private sector forest management entities, other data holders such as NEMA, Petroleum Authority of Uganda, National Biodiversity Databank, and NGOs such as Nature Uganda, WCS, to facilitate production of national forestry statistics. The input of the private forest owners should be negotiated to agree on the information that is necessary to augment national level outputs from the NFMIS, without infringing their copyright information. This should be possible through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)
Instruction 533: Given the many information management systems/ databases (even within one organisation), each unit should remain with its system/ database, and the central NFMIS should develop a dashboard to link the systems, through Application Programming Interfaces.
Instruction 534: NFA, with a well-equipped GIS set up and well-trained staff to match, should manage the technical aspects of analysing the datasets from various sources in the forestry sector, while FSSD should execute the coordination function, so that there is an agreed and functioning data sharing arrangement (NFA and its field units, PFOs, and Research Organisations). That means to a great extent, the central database at NFA would be replicated at FSSD with access rights that are equal to those of the NFA personnel responsible for the central database
The Handbook with its annexes will amount to a large volume of information which might be unwieldy to use as a day to day forest management tool. The Handbook also points to many other documents which it is not necessary to reproduce, but which can be easily accessed by the user of the SFPs. The documents may be downloaded from various websites (e.g. Public Service Standing Orders, Tree Planting Guidelines for Uganda, Public Finance Management Guidelines, 2016, etc.); or which are available as hard and soft copies (e.g. various NFA technical forest management). Preparation of this Handbook consulted over 170 documents, and more will come to light in the process of using this Handbook. Therefore, it is important that these documents are kept together in digital resource centres, or even in hard copies, especially out at forest stations.
Instruction 535: Therefore, the knowledge / resource centres should operate according to the following provisions:
(i) Each government FMI should task at least one staff to manage the SFPs resource centre. At the levels where this is not a fulltime job, it should be included in the job description of one staff, and should be assessed during staff performance appraisal.
(ii) NFA should operate a resource centre at headquarters, and libraries at Range and Sector levels, while the library at LG level should be kept at the District Forestry Office;
(iii) FSSD should operate the resource centre at Headquarters and Regional Offices, and have an electronic link with all the other libraries at NFA and LGs
(iv) Links with resource centres already established by NEMA at the districts should be established
(v) All units where the libraries are located should be equipped with computers and the accessories that are necessary to keep the libraries updated. The funds that are necessary for operating, updating and maintenance of the libraries shall be included in AWPs and budgets
(vi) The resource centres and libraries shall contain
• All reference documents that can be downloaded from the internet so that they can be accessed offline
• Free access online applications like the World Agroforestry Centre Tree Species Database, mapping applications, land cover/ land use databases, digital maps of forest reserves, private and community forests,
(vii) The stock of documents held at each FMI Unit shall be updated continuously
Instruction 536: As forest management technologies continue to evolve, the form and content of the resource centres are also expected to evolve. Therefore, the content and form of the knowledge/ resource centres shall be reviewed at least once every 3-5 years and updated accordingly
Management of forestry resources in Uganda has been generating a lot of disputes, largely because of the competing land uses (especially agriculture and human settlement), and the forest products that are tradable. Therefore, it is important that FMIs develop formal procedures for handling disputes[1] and conflicts[2] that arise in the management of forests, especially in protected areas. Such procedures would aim at resolving the disputes and conflicts amicably, and reduce the need for costly legal processes, and damaging the relationship between the FMIs and the communities.
The following institutional arrangements should help FMIs to develop locally appropriate dispute/ conflict resolution processes:
(i) The stakeholder should seek first to resolve their complaint directly with the concerned FMI staff member, or his/her supervisor
(ii) If it is not possible to resolve their dispute directly, then the dispute should be taken to other higher supervisors to the extent that the complainant is able to reach the various supervisor levels
(iii) Alternatively, the complainant (including if the complainant if a FMI staff) may take their dispute to the appropriate local community institutions like Local Council 1, clan councils, distinguished elders, LG officials, etc.
(iv) Set up a dispute resolution committee composed of members that are agreeable to both parties to the dispute
(v) It is after the local avenues and the administrative hierarchy of the FMI have been exhausted without resolving the dispute that it can be referred to legal arbitration processes
At each the institutional levels outlined above, it is important to follow the following steps in the resolution process (Kimberly A. Benjamin, 2013[3] ):
(i) Choose a moderator who is agreeable to both parties to the dispute
(ii) Clarify what the disagreement is
Both parties to the dispute should discuss the needs that are not being met in order to get a common understanding of the dispute
(iii) Establish a common goal for both parties
Discuss what each party would like to see happen and find as much commonality in both sides as a starting point for a shared outcome. That commonality can be as simple as “both sides want to end the conflict.”
(iv) Discuss ways to meet the common goal
Both parties then discuss ways that they can meet the goal they agreed on. Keep going until all the options are exhausted.
(v) Determine the barriers to the common goal
In this step of the process, the two parties acknowledge what has brought them into the conflict and talk about what problems may prevent a resolution. Define what can and cannot be changed about the situation. For the items that cannot be changed, discuss ways of getting around those road blocks.
(vi) Agree on the best way to resolve the conflict
Both parties need to come to a conclusion on the best resolution. Start by identifying solutions that both sides can live with. Ask both sides and see where there is common ground. Then start to discuss the responsibilities each party has in maintaining the solution. It’s also important to use this opportunity to get to the root cause to ensure this conflict will not come up again.
(vii) Acknowledge the agreed upon solution and determine the responsibilities each party has in the resolution
Both sides need to own their responsibility in the resolution of the conflict and express what they have agreed to. In many cases, the agreed solutions and the responsibilities associated with the solution on both sides should be recorded and signed by the moderator
(viii) When this process fails to proceed at one of the steps, then it is time to agree on an alternative institutional arrangement or to recourse to courts of law
Instruction 537: The process described above shall be used by FMIs to develop their own detailed dispute resolution processes. Such processes shall be developed in a participatory manner to cultivate stakeholder confidence in them.
A short-term disagreement that can result in the disputants reaching a resolution; it involves issues that are negotiable. If left unchecked and unexplained, a dispute can easily turn into a conflict. ↩︎
Long-term with deeply rooted issues that are seen as those where it is difficult to reach agreement. Conflicts rarely revert to disputes without focused intervention ↩︎
Kimberly A. Benjamin, 2013. HR Management and Compliance ↩︎