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Adult male chimpanzee. Credit: Jeremy Holden / Fauna & Flora

Adult male chimpanzee. Credit: Jeremy Holden / Fauna & Flora

Restoring forest corridors for chimpanzees in western Uganda

Project
Project lead: Cath Lawson

In the Albertine Rift, western Uganda, Fauna & Flora is working with local communities to restore vital ecological corridors between some of the country’s remaining chimpanzee strongholds. We are also helping local communities benefit from diversified incomes through sustainable agroforestry and enterprise development and are working to reduce human-wildlife conflict.

Since 2014, Fauna & Flora has been working to improve habitat connectivity between four forest reserves in the Albertine Rift: Budongo and Mukihani forest reserves in the north of the region, and Wambabya and Bugoma forest reserves in the south. Habitat degradation, forest fragmentation and human-wildlife conflict are well-documented threats, but these problems are driven by poverty. Local communities face food insecurity due to low agricultural yields, crop raiding by chimpanzees and other wildlife, and – increasingly – the impacts of climate change. In the face of this, forest cover used by chimpanzees for movement, food and nesting is being regularly encroached upon by community members for subsistence farming.

Objectives

We aim to improve chimpanzee movement throughout 2,710 hectares of forest corridor by implementing community-based restoration of ecological corridors in critical riverine forest and chimpanzee habitat in the Budongo-Bugoma landscape of the Albertine Rift. In parallel, we want to ensure that local communities benefit from diversified incomes and reduced human-wildlife conflict by applying conflict mitigation strategies and developing sustainable agroforestry and enterprise initiatives.  

Our long-term vision for the area is that well-managed and restored forests in the Albertine Rift conserve biodiversity, improve and sustain the conservation status of chimpanzee populations, enhance resilience, and contribute to local communities’ sustainable livelihoods and well-being.

Our work

Fauna & Flora is working with Private Forest Owners Association (PFOA) members in the Budongo-Mukihani and Bugoma-Wambabya corridors. Building on previous work to establish chimpanzee monitoring, we are providing these associations with training and support on the reforestation of riverine corridors, agroforestry, enterprise development and human-wildlife conflict mitigation. We are also developing local-level sustainable financing mechanisms to support ongoing conservation efforts by the PFOAs. There is strong government engagement and technical support through the District Authorities in Kikuube, Masindi and Hoima, and through the Uganda Wildlife Authority.

Key milestones

    2021

    Conservation finance model rolled out to all sites.

    2020

    Darwin Initiative work begins.

    2019

    14.6 hectares of private land planted with native trees; protocols for monitoring chimpanzee threats established; conservation finance model piloted.

    2018

    Monitoring shows a 40% increase in chimpanzees’ use of the corridor as a result of our conservation activities.

    2016-17

    Surveys establish the baseline for chimpanzee movement between the corridors and a biodiversity baseline assessment is conducted. 89.6 hectares of private land planted with native trees.

    2014

    Project begins, with a socio-economic baseline survey undertaken as one of the first activities.

Protecting vital habitats

Fauna & Flora uses a range of approaches to address the causes of habitat loss but always works with in-country partners to ensure that the action we take is locally appropriate. Above all, we operate on the basis that success is contingent on working with communities and including them in all decisions that affect their daily lives, rather than creating ‘wildlife-only’ exclusion zones.

Support conservation that works
Cath Lawson profile picture

Cath Lawson

Senior Programme Manager, Eastern Africa

Cath oversees Fauna & Flora’s work in East Africa, leading a team of more than 40 in-country staff. An anthropologist and primatologist, she brings extensive programme management experience having worked for a number of leading environmental NGOs, including WWF and the Zoological Society of London.

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