TERMS    OF    REFERENCE    CONSULTANCY    TO    REVIEW    AND    RE-DEVELOP    THE    UGANDA    FORESTRY    STANDING    ORDERS    &    ADMINISTRATIVE    POLICIES   

The African Wildlife Foundation, on behalf of the Ministry for Water and Environment, is seeking the services of a senior consultant to develop a new set of standing orders and administrative policies for the forest sector, arising from the need to revise, redevelop and revive the Departmental Standing Orders of the previous Forest Department (1997), together with the incorporation of existing FSSD, NFA and DFS orders and policies into the new instrument.

Uganda's Forest Reference Emission Level (FREL) prescribes a forest baseline level/emission level against which the country shall measure impacts arising from implementation of the  REDD+ Strategy and Action Plan.  In the implementation of its 20-year Uganda’s REDD+ Strategy and action plan, the Ministry of Water and Environment is committed to improve on the forest resources to be able to contribute to the mitigation of climate change effects...

Implementation of the REDD+ Strategy and Action Plan is envisaged to generate benefits and or incentives to all stakeholders involved in REDD+ activities. In this regard, Uganda has put in place a Benefits Sharing Arrangements framework to guide sharing of REDD+ benefits in a transparent and equitable manner.

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.