| Overview : Mt Elgon landscape presents a variety of ecosystems providing services upon which local population heavily depends. A large portion of the landscape is now degraded, considering current changes in land use due to expansion of agriculture fields and human settlements, largely driven by high population growth especially the higher percentage of women as compared to men yet control of land is in the hands of men. There is also increasing pressure on the land to accommodate a population that is still rising in the Mt Elgon region and the inherent danger is that this increasing pressure for land will impact negatively on land use, such as a) causing trees to be cut for fuel wood before maturing and b) increase encroachment into the upper protected watersheds c) increased land fragmentation d) increased soil erosion. Furthermore, it should be noted that women play a dominant role in land management despite the fact that they have limited control and access to knowledge and capacity building opportunities. Coupled with the above, the level of adoption of better land use practices has been tremendously low and uncoordinated. The area is characterised by land fragmentation, population pressure, the terrain and the varying needs of the different farmer categories. There is limited knowledge on how to implement Sustainable Land Management (SLM) sustainable forest management (SFM) and climate change mitigation (CCM). There is also limited access to extension services, limited or no innovation in land use management, and no incentives to improve land use practices. Non-application of sustainable land use practices is driven by limited ‘knowhow’ and technical capabilities to do so. There is a need to demonstrate how this can be done in practice but such demonstration has not been yet available in the Mount Elgon landscape. The Government of Uganda through the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) with support from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) is implementing the project “Integrated Landscape Management for Ecosystem Resilience and Improved Livelihoods in the Mt. Elgon Region” in the districts of Mbale, Bulambuli and Manafwa. The overall goal of the project is to empower communities in Mt Elgon to manage their production landscapes in an integrated manner for improved livelihoods and ecosystem resilience. Objective of assignment: Overall the assignment is to develop guidelines, strategies and measures for implementing SLM, SFM and CCM in Land use plans in highland agro ecological zones (Case study – Mbale, Bulambuli and Manafwa Districts). It is expected that the consultant will: - Develop a strategy for implementing SLM, SFM and CCM in highland agro ecological zones (Mbale, Bulambuli and Manafwa Districts);
- Develop implementation guidelines for SLM, SFM and CCM in highland agro ecological zones (Mbale, Bulambuli and Manafwa Districts);
- Provide a framework for strengthening the capacity of District Local Government, Extension Staff and Farmers to undertake monitoring and data management in SLM, SFM and CCM.
The project stakeholders include farmers, Local Leaders, government agencies namely: The 3 DLGs, the 6 LLGs, MWE, MLHUD, Ministry of Trade, UNMA, NARO, NEMA, NFA, UWA, NGOs, CBOs, FBOs and MAAIF the lead implementing agency. These stakeholders are responsible for accomplishing this particular task. |
