A highly participatory approach was taken by the field officers. Community members took decisions on project management and implemented activities. There was a good sense of ownership.
Policy Impact
Participatory development of the bye-law for the protection of Musambwa islands biodiversity.
Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment
Publicity of the project and the islands raised awareness about biodiversity locally, nationally and internationally.
Gender Focus
The project worked with a women's group, and its members were very active in developing new income strategies.
Capacity - Building Component
Training for community members included demonstrations on energy efficient stoves and alternative income generating activities, e.g. paper making.
Project Results
The project established sustainable partnerships of all stakeholders and ensured that the resulting benefit/costs were equitably shared. The project was implemented within the frameworks of four objectives namely;
? Development of a streamlined and operational institutional framework for the conservation and management of Musambwa Islands.
? Development and implementation of control measures that reduce the negative impacts of humans on the breeding of birds at Musambwa Islands.
? Promotion of tourism and other income generating activities.
? Development of an operational mechanism for gathering, analysing and disseminating information about Musambwa Island's biodiversity.
The project beneficiaries include the transient local community of the Musambwa islands, communities that live in the adjacent fishing villages, and the Rakai district local government. In total, the project benefited well over 1,000 people living at Musambwa islands and the adjacent fishing villages.
Project Impact:
One of the outstanding and key achievements of the project is the development of the bye-law for the protection of Musambwa islands biodiversity. This was done in a participatory bottom-up manner involving local community at the lowest level as the pillar. The bye-law was in response to the alarming rate of environmental degradation manifested through unsustainable use of resources in particular consumption of eggs of the Grey-headed Gull; a situation that was seriously impacting on the breeding of this globally significant species.
Clearly, this provides a scenario of self-governance whereby the local communities appreciating a problem threatening nature in their amidst on which their livelihood depended and hence taking a democratic right and process to control themselves for the good of the nature and their own. The underlying principle has been awareness and making them realise that they area part of the environment and that the environment is bigger than their individual interest and hence a need for collective action at a local level realising that this has a great impact on the global scale. The scenario also provides indicators on how political player especially at district level can respect the views and aspiration of the local community when the latter stands together and talks with one voice. The role of the Civil Society Organisation such as Nature Uganda in the entire process cannot be over emphasised. Clearly the Civil Society - Government partnerships is demonstrated by this case study where the latter recognise the former as a key ally in the human development processes in their areas of political mandate. Specifically, this partnership project between Nature Uganda and Rakai District Council have demonstrated that with minimal support such as that from GEF/UNDP- Small Grants programme Civil society and government can support the local communities to make an appreciable difference in their lives as well as the global scale biodiversity.
As a result, biodiversity quality and quantity at Musambwa islands has considerably improved. This is reflected by the enhanced breeding success of birds as indicator species. Additionally, peoples? appreciation for biodiversity conservation and the biodiversity link with livelihoods has remarkably improved.
Participatory and National ownership:
Key stakeholders in this project included resident communities at Musambwa islands and the associated fishing villages, the district local government of Kabira and Kyebe sub-counties in Rakai district. Stakeholders at national level including the UNDP, NEMA FD and WID were particularly involved in the initial conceptualisation of the intervention, monitoring and evaluation as well as management planning for Musambwa islands. The partnership between NatureUganda and ECOTRUST enabled the establishment of an environmental friendly sanitation improvement facility at Musambwa islands for the improvement of the environmental healthy for sustainable livelihoods.
The local community and the local government in Rakai were involved in the planning and implementations of the project activities. In particular, the site conservation committee and the district environment and forestry officers. Women formed the focus of the income generating activities as part of the overall tourism development for Musambwa islands. This helped to break the traditional stigma that tended to exclude women from benefiting from Musambwa islands.
The project supported community bye-law development process for the conservation of Musambwa islands biodiversity through the district local government structures as well as the use of the specialised community conservation committees as a means of enhancing community conservation have been some of the remarkable successes which have already been use to some extent in the context of conservation approaches for biodiversity in areas that are not legally protected.
Management:
Management of the project implementation was mainly through the NatureUganda institutional structures, partner mechanisms as well as jointly agreed project implementation mechanisms such as project committees at district and local community levels with facilitation and co-ordinaton of the field officer. The project committees played a key role in providing technical and co-ordination guidance / support to project implementation as well as financial and programme accountability.
Advocacy and partnership building:
This project approach provides a practical case study that may be relevant to the work of other relevant agencies like the UNDP. It gives a lively case scenario local community in action for a greater wider impact in biodiversity conservation based on the tenet of their livelihood enhancement. Experiences from this project indicated importance of decentralising power to the local community - power to make decisions - regarding biodiversity conservation alongside rural livelihood enhancement. It also indicated the relevance of the broader framework of UNDP with its partners and especially so within the contexts of the Small Grants programmes in achieving Millennium Development Goals as long as there is substantial committed from the political leadership and the local community supportive policies. Messages from the project were often disseminated to wider audiences both within and outside the national boundaries especially by means of information dissemination materials such as brochures, posters and Internet. The project encouraged formation of partnerships and alliances with partners at local, national and international levels that enabled the successful implementation of the project.
Replication:
The following lessons from the project provide avenues and springboard for replication of similar programmes.
? The island community has proved to be very instrumental in playing the custodian role for the protection of birds at the islands. The bye-laws and ordinance development is a clear testimony.
? Working with district departments is crucial for the sustainability of the project. It is therefore worth noting that to be able to make good use of technical potential available at the district, projects should facilitate the district technical staff that they want to involve. Otherwise it is not realistic to expect staff time contribution in kind when these people are expected to play practical roles in the implementation of activities yet with restricted budgets..
? Collaborative net working with other conservation implementing agencies should be encouraged for synergies.
? Reconciling the interests of resource user community alongside the conservation priorities is a challenge but worthwhile undertaking.
? Lobbying the local governments to include and integrate environmental related activities in their development plans at Local level is a challenge given the restricted budgets under which Local governments operate.