Development through conservation in South - West Uganda project : evaluation report

External evaluation covers the period 8/88-6/90. The project has made significant progress in a short time towards the goals of protecting biological diversity in forest reserves, while raising conservation awareness among neighboring farmers. Some 2,225 farmers are now participating, compared with the long- term target of 86,500. The on-farm approaches are sound because they are farmer-generated and stress recycling of nutrients from plant and animal resources on individual farms. The emphasis on using indigenous tree species is also commendable. It is too early to determine the impact of these activities on crop yields. Several questions remain, however, regarding the appropriateness of the project structure. The current arrangement of a grant to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and a subcontract to CARE has shown no significant advantage over a single TA contractor, and project officials are overburdened with administrative details. The choice of the Ministry of Environment Protection and its Departments of Forest and Environmental Education as counterpart agencies has proven unsuitable. A project focus is on management plans, but it is uncertain who is to implement them in the reserves or coordinate them with parish land use plans. Reserve management will also be difficult due to conflicts between the Forest and Game Departments and a lack of baseline information. There are additional problems. (1) Expectations for reduction of soil erosion are unrealistic (though A.I.D. is justified in continuing to support such activities). (2) Maintenance of swamps may be more important than realized. (3) Farmers are already practicing sophisticated multi-storied cropping systems, which may be more advantageous than the simple agroforestry interventions encouraged under the project. (5) Reconstruction work on feeder roads in the Bwindi Forest Reserve vicinity poses an erosion threat unless corrective measures are taken. Overall, the project is appropriate -- the Afro-montane biome is as important as the project alleges -- but it should be redesigned on the basis of experience to date. The grant agreement with World Wildlife Fund should not be renewed. A total of 21 other recommendations are included.