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. 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. 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 Manafa. 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. This has not been realised due to lack of planning at landscape level. To achieve this goal, there is need to develop resource maps, land use plans and SEAPS at parish level in the 33 parishes in the three project districts using Integrated landscape management approaches. The Government of Uganda in partnership with UNDP intends to engage a consultant to undertake participatory development of community resource Maps, Land use plans and SEAPs at parish level. Objective of assignment: To develop community resource Maps and Land use plans at parish level (1 per each of the parishes of the sub-county -33 in total) and development of SEAPs (6 SEAPs) in Mbale, Bulambuli and Manafwa Districts. |