Extending the Frontiers of Community Engagement in Conservation

USAID/Uganda Biodiversity for Resilience (B4R) Activity's goal is to assist communities, the Government of Uganda (GOU), and the private sector to conserve and manage biodiversity, specifically wildlife and forest ecosystems in the community areas bordering the Protected Areas in 6 target landscapes, including in Kidepo, in Karamoja region. The Activity seeks to bridge the gaps related to management of wildlife and forests in community areas and promotes a co-management arrangement with the Government of Uganda entities, the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) and the National Forestry Authority (NFA). However, the absence of an overarching community structure was a large impediment in the efforts to facilitate community co-management of Protected Area resources.  

Following a range of collaboration meetings, project consultations, pause and reflect sessions, and further stakeholder analysis in the Kidepo project area, B4R was able to identify and re-think its strategy for community collaboration with the objective to identify a strategic community-level partner with the structure, technical orientation, and potential to mobilize and coordinate community participation. KKAKKA, a community wildlife association with an extensive grass root structure, has since been identified and given new responsibilities and will act as a nexus around which community-level interventions will be pivoted. The adaptive management decisions were achieved through robust, systematic engagements including periodic quarterly pause & reflect, annual work planning /theory of change discussions with stakeholders, and parish-level collaboration meetings.

This was further facilitated by the strong culture of learning, technical excellence, and teamwork by B4R staff to achieve collaboration and adaptive management. In addition, B4R has established Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), tools and templates for conducting stakeholder discussions, pause and reflect and annual work planning.