Publications & Reports

Illegal resource access is a pressing biodiversity conservation and protected area management challenge. At Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (Bwindi) in south western Uganda, poaching and unauthorised access to forest resources is rife, driven primarily by poverty. An Integrated Conservation and Development Program (ICDP) was established in Bwindi in 1994 to address local community livelihoods, whilst dissuading illegal activity and associated impacts on the protected area.

In biodiversity hotspots, there is often tension between human needs and conservation, exacerbated when protected areas prevent access to natural resources. Forest- dependent people may compensate for exclusion by managing unprotected forests or cultivating planted woodlots. Outside Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda, household wood product needs are high and population growth puts pressure on the environment. We investigated the role of privately and collectively managed woodlots in provisioning wood products and supporting local livelihoods.

The amount of food harvested, processed and stored by households determines food availability—a key dimension to food security. In developing countries, frontline households around protected areas harvest wild climbers for making food security products. When access to the wild climbers is denied, households adapt by using other available alternatives such as plastics with potential con- sequences to biodiversity. The relationships between harvesting wild climbers and: (a) food availability, (b) plastic use, and (c) wild climber populations have rarely been investigated.

This study was undertaken under the Greater Virunga Transboundary Collaboration (GVTC) involving three partner states of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Uganda. The collaborative transboundary framework of programs, plans and activities is aimed at conserving the network of Protected Areas (PAs) in the Greater Virunga Landscape (GVL).

The study was carried out under the Greater Virunga Transboundary Collaboration (GVTC) involving the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Uganda. The collaborative transboundary framework of programs, plans and activities is aimed at conserving the network of Protected Areas (PAs) in the Greater Virunga Landscape (GVL).

Sarambwe Nature Reserve (SNR) located in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is contiguous with Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP) partly forming a corridor for wildlife such as mountain gorillas.

The Local Economic Development Through Pro-Poor Tourism project has demonstrated that it is possible to develop sustainable livelihood opportunities from tourism – even when they are not based on the main tourism attraction themselves. At Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, tourists visit to see gorillas. None of the enterprises supported by this project are offering gorilla viewing tours, yet they all have complementary products that can enhance the main tourism attraction.