Goal
To promote environmental conservation through education and sustainable community-driven initiatives.
Summary
CECOP aims to promote conservation and reduce environmentally degrading practices in and around Murchison Falls Conservation Area by employing an innovative and holistic approach to community conservation, emphasising the importance of local knowledge and culture. To achieve this CECOP delivers an empowering community-driven programme that promotes stakeholder involvement and partnerships as a way to ensure participation, ownership and sustainability.
Background
Murchison Falls Conservation Area (MFCA) is Uganda's largest protected area. Located in the North Western region of the country, MFCA is recognised as a “biodiversity hotspot” (IUCN), an area with a significant reservoir of biodiversity that is under threat from human activity. In addition to its environmental significance, MFCA provides substantial economic returns as an international tourist destination.
Having been one of east Africa's premier safari destinations during the 1960s, the political instability of the 1970s and '80s caused tourism to collapse, resulting in a decline in revenue and thus significant challenges to the management of MFCA. This led to a drastic decline in animal populations and widespread environmental destruction and biodiversity loss, including the local extinction of the northern white rhino. Despite recent improvements in the management approach and strategies, including infrastructural development and community conservation, MFCA continues to face conservation challenges.
In 2007, after consultation with Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) and other stakeholders, a partnership was formalised. Soft Power Education (SPE), recognised for its achievements in linking tourism and community development in Jinja District (Eastern Uganda), developed 'The Murchison Project’, with a mission to link tourism with development in order to improve the quality of life in Uganda through education.
Rationale
Top-down approaches to conservation, through law and enforcement are shown to insufficiently address the complexity of issues which lead to environmentally destructive practices such as deforestation, encroachment and poaching. Research conducted by SPE in bordering communities has shown that people feel marginalised and excluded from MFCA and the benefits of tourism, and perceive the restrictions on resource-use as outweighing the benefits of conservation. Evidence emphasises the importance of community involvement, empowerment and participation in promoting environmental conservation.
Solution
CECOP aims to raise awareness of environmental conservation issues and promote meaningful inclusion and participation in natural resource management. Fundamental to CECOP is the belief that raising awareness alone will not sufficiently address the complexity of environmental issues faced. Therefore, through delivering participatory workshops to compliment educational activities CECOP builds the capacity of communities to design, develop, implement and monitor their own environmentally friendly and sustainable community-driven initiatives. This livelihoods approach not only addresses the human concerns of local communities, but also serves to promote conservation.
Underpinning this approach is the notion that border communities are able to recognise the potential benefits of MFCA, for example in terms of regulation of climatic conditions by the ecosystem or access to tourist markets, and will therefore endeavour to conserve it. The MFCA General Management Plan 2001-2011 also emphasises the importance of integrating local communities into park management structures and developing programmes that enable local communities to use natural resources in a sustainable manner. SPE supports and will integrate these objectives throughout the CECOP and work to strengthen its partnership and build the capacity of UWA.
The CECOP Model
The CECOP model is designed ‘‘to bolster the ability of local communities to play a lead role in their own development’’ (USAID, 1997). A typical cycle runs over 18 months and includes the following phases:
Phase I: Research and Planning
- Identification and selection of areas of operation
Phase II: Sensitisation and Mobilisation
- Sensitisation of new or existing community groups within the areas of operation about SPE and CECOP activities through community meetings and group workshops, facilitated by CECOP Field Officers
- Selection of 16 committed groups to work with
Phase III: Facilitation
- Series of three conservation education workshops held with the selected groups in partnership with UWA
- Series of six participatory capacity building workshops held with groups, including 'Group Dynamics', 'Anaylsis', 'Decision Making', 'Design' and 'Development I and II'
- Proposals for community-driven initiatives submitted. Initiatives may fall into the following areas; workshops, projects, social business/enterprise. For an initiative to be eligible at all it must fall into one or more of these broad categories depending on the initiative; social development, environmental conservation or economic livelihoods
Phase IV: Implementation
- Signing of Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) between groups and SPE
- Implementation of initiatives jointly between groups and CECOP, including community resource procurement where appropriate
Phase V: Monitoring and Evaluation
- Provision of support and advice by CECOP for group initiatives and monitoring and evaluation
- CECOP monitoring and evaluation
Sustainability and Funding
CECOP has been set up to operate through funding provided by SPE's Conservation Tourism Fund, a model of which can be seen below.
2010-2011 Pilot Project
The pilot project has focused its activities in Buliisa District which is bordered on the east by MFCA and on the west by Lake Albert. The main conservation issues in Buliisa District are identified by stakeholders to be deforestation, poaching, encroachment and overgrazing. Community-driven initiatives designed and implemented by groups during the pilot phase include:
- Beekeeping
- Fruit growing (oranges and pineapples)
- Duck, goat and pig rearing
- Woodlot establishment
Volunteer Opportunities
We are always looking for interested, passionate and keen volunteers to integrate into CECOP activities. If you would like more information about volunteering for CECOP then email: volunteering@softpowereducation.com
