EcoTrust

Funding from ERF will support the purchase of 58 ha of degraded woodland, leasing of 33 ha and employing conservation agreements to secure two corridors totalling 124 ha. The corridors connect Chimpanzee troops identified in Bugoma and Wambabya forest reserves and Bugambe tea estates. Further the project will restore native forest in and around the corridor through planting ~50,000 native seedlings.

Land use change for food production and fuel wood, driven by poverty and population pressures have resulted in the near total loss of all native forest for crop cultivation and eucalyptus plantations. These threats are set against a backdrop of hydrocarbon development and associated infrastructure creation, as well as massive expansion of out-grower sugar cane plantations.

The project is the first phase of an ambitious plan to conserve over 50,000 ha of forest in Western Uganda by securing and restoring the connectivity between Bugoma and Budongo forest reserves, and protect the rich biodiversity of the Albertine Rift, which includes chimpanzees and many other endemic species. Fuelwood demands and rising populations in poverty mean that native forest is likely to disappear in the project area in the next 5 years, converted to small-holder cropland and eucalyptus plantations. Despite the loss of habitat, a significant number of chimpanzee troops still live and move through this fragmented, open woodland landscape.