Safeguarding the forest tenure rights of forest-dependent communities in Uganda

Key messagesParticipatory Prospective Analysis (PPA) proved to be effective for encouraging collective reflection to identify threats to forest tenure security and to develop ways for improving it at a national-level workshop in Uganda, where stakeholders identified several factors that strongly influence the forest tenure rights of forest-dependent communities.Factors influencing forestry tenure security that they identified were: forest resource governance; community capacity to sustainably manage forests and demand/defend tenure rights; the priority level of forestry and tenure security for development partners; local norms and beliefs that impact upon vulnerable groups' tenure rights; forestry sector financing in national budgetary allocations; and local communities' legal literacy on land / forest tenure.When analyzing the potential evolution of forest tenure security over the next 25 years, stakeholders identified some desirable potential outcomes. Among them are: forestry being prioritized in national development plans; availability of adequate financial resources; existence of capable, well-coordinated district- and national-level government structures to promote community forest tenure; availability of technical staff with capacity to equip communities with knowledge and skills to enable them to exercise their tenure rights; presence of enterprising communities with skills to innovate and adopt alternatives to forestry products; and effective enforcement of gender-sensitive forestry-related laws and policies to promote benefit-sharing equity.After analyzing potential future outcomes, both negative and positive, PPA stakeholders recommended prioritizing a set of actions to safeguard the future forest tenure security of forest-dependent communities. These actions were: improving coordination of key government agencies; adopting inclusive and participatory decision-making processes for tenure-related activity implementation; improving stakeholders' technical and financial capacity with traditional and emerging innovative financing mechanisms; and implementing policies and strategies designed to provide alternative livelihood sources, thus reducing local dependence on forests and forest products.

• Participatory Prospective Analysis (PPA) proved to be effective for encouraging collective reflection to identify threats to forest tenure security and to develop ways for improving it at a national-level workshop in Uganda, where stakeholders identified several factors that strongly influence the forest tenure rights of forest-dependent communities. • Factors influencing forestry tenure security that they identified were: forest resource governance; community capacity to sustainably manage forests and demand/defend tenure rights; the priority level of forestry and tenure security for development partners; local norms and beliefs that impact upon vulnerable groups' tenure rights; forestry sector financing in national budgetary allocations; and local communities' legal literacy on land / forest tenure. • When analyzing the potential evolution of forest tenure security over the next 25 years, stakeholders identified some desirable potential outcomes. Among them are: forestry being prioritized in national development plans; availability of adequate financial resources; existence of capable, well-coordinated district-and national-level government structures to promote community forest tenure; availability of technical staff with capacity to equip communities with knowledge and skills to enable them to exercise their tenure rights; presence of enterprising communities with skills to innovate and adopt alternatives to forestry products; and effective enforcement of gender-sensitive forestryrelated laws and policies to promote benefitsharing equity. • After analyzing potential future outcomes, both negative and positive, PPA stakeholders recommended prioritizing a set of actions to safeguard the future forest tenure security of forestdependent communities. These actions were: improving coordination of key government agencies; adopting inclusive and participatory decision-making processes for tenure-related activity implementation; improving stakeholders' technical and financial capacity with traditional and emerging innovative financing mechanisms; and implementing policies and strategies designed to provide alternative livelihood sources, thus reducing local dependence on forests and forest products.

Introduction
Forest tenure rights of forest-dependent communities in Uganda are an important issue, but several questions arise about their current and future state. What are the main threats to those rights? What will forest tenure rights of those communities look like in 25 years? What actions should be undertaken when, and by whom, to ensure that forest tenure rights of forest-adjacent communities are well protected in the foreseeable future? These questions prompted the Center for International Forestry (FAO 2012). PPA participants agreed on a definition of forest tenure security as "a situation in which undisputed rights, on any property related to forest land and resources, are guaranteed by a legal or community standard system that acknowledges and protects them, for a continuous period, against challenges from individuals or groups and the state." 5 PPA workshops adopted a "bundle of rights" approach, including access, use/withdrawal, management, exclusion, and alienation of rights to land and forest resources.

Uganda
Uganda, like many tropical developing countries, has experienced serious deforestation and degradation of both its private and protected forests. Private forest 4 One of the districts, Kibaale, was divided into two districts (Kibaale and Kakumiro) midway through the project.  Reforms have entailed new arrangements for sharing and granting rights to local people living in and around forests, in an attempt to reconcile forest conservation with livelihood improvement goals. Prior to the NFTPA, collaborative and community forest management was non-existent in Uganda. Previous forest policies emphasized centralized management without the involvement of forest-adjacent communities. The NFTPA now allows such communities to benefit from forests, via co-management through the Collaborative Forest Management (CFM) partnership with the NFA. However, more than a decade after the law was adopted, only 49 CFM agreements had been signed, covering 63,700 ha in 20 Central Forest Reserves (CFRs) (Council Dickson Langoya, personal communication), and only six community forests had been registered -four in Masindi district, two in Lamwo district, and two others elsewhere in the Northern Region. Clearly, more work is needed to extend and enhance tenure rights of forestdependent communities, and much more is needed to explore, understand and remediate conditions that account for the slow implementation of tenure reforms.
Against this background, the PPA workshops focused on the following forest tenure reform arrangements: • Private forests, defined as forest found on all nongazetted land, meaning land outside protected areas (Forest Policy 2001). Private forests constitute 38% of total forest cover in Uganda, and their owners have full rights to sell, lease, or use land as collateral, including sale of all other rights. District governments hold regulatory rights, requiring owners to manage trees and forests sustainably. Despite legal provisions stipulating that private forests be registered with the District Land Board, this has not happened (MWE 2016). As a result, private forests continue to be converted to agricultural land. Owners of 50 private forests are, however, awaiting certificates of registration, having gone through the registration process (Langoya personal communication). • Community forests, managed collectively by local groups follow a process guided by both land and forest legislation. Local groups include forestadjacent communities, specific forest-user groups, communal land associations, cooperative societies, farmers groups, or NGOs drawing membership from the local community. The Land Act (1998) grants a community the right to communal land ownership and management through a Communal Land Association (CLA). If the CLA decides to manage its land as a community forest, NFTPA provisions apply. The NFTPA then grants management, maintenance and control of an area located within a community's jurisdiction, and that is declared a Community Forest. After declaration, communities can generate revenues from forests to develop their area, and make independent decisions about its use. So far, the Communal Land Associations (CLAs) managing the 6 The project to pilot the registration was a joint effort by the Forest Sector Support Department, the United Nations Organization for Food and Agriculture (FAO), and the UK Department for International Development (DFID). six community forests have been registered and are awaiting declaration of their community forests by the minister. 6 • Community Forests on customary lands are guided by the same policy processes as Community Forests, but differ in that for forest use and management of customary land forests, customary institutions are recognized and apply. The constitution legally recognizes customary land ownership and use, and NFA provides technical support for the customary forest tenure systems that are common in northern Uganda, where strong customary systems have survived decades of state intervention. So far, two community forests have passed through registration under the customary land tenure system. • Collaborative Forest Management (CFM) refers to joint management by a body such as the NFA, and a local user group such as a forest-adjacent community. This arrangement is guided by CFM guidelines, where both parties agree on rights, responsibilities and obligations. Typical rights may include tree-planting, collection of non-timber forest products, and support for livelihood options outside the forest reserve to reduce pressure on protected the forest.

Methodology
Participatory Prospective Analysis is a systematic foresighting process based on a co-elaborative approach that combines participatory learning with information sharing (Bourgeois and Jesus, 2004;Bourgeois et al, 2017). The participatory approach of PPA strengthens participants' capacity to become more active decision-makers.
PPA was used to bring together national-level stakeholders to jointly identify threats to local forest tenure and the drivers of tenure security and insecurity, as well as to develop potential tenure security scenarios and elaborate a series of actions in response to the scenarios identified. The PPA process follows sequential steps guided by trained facilitators to ensure meaningful participation by all stakeholders. Definitions are as discussed and agreed by PPA stakeholders; they are not adopted from policy or scholarly references.
Twenty-two stakeholders (14 men and 8 women) participated in a five-day workshop in April 2016, in Jinja, Uganda, and a one-day consultative workshop in July 2016 to review findings and finalize recommended action plans. Participants included officials from relevant ministries, as well as local government representatives, national-level NGO representatives, academia, and political leaders.
The workshop followed the five key steps of the PPA approach: 1. Defining the "system," whereby stakeholders identify the issue (what), define a geographical boundary (where) and timing (when) to ensure realistic foresighting. Stakeholders defined the system as "forest tenure security in Uganda by 2040," arguing that forestry requires long-term planning thus should be aligned to the National Development Plan. This duration of 25 years is significantly longer than the systems defined by stakeholders in workshops held in the districts of Lamwo, Masindi and Kibaale, which ranged from 5 to 10 years. 2. Identifiying and defining "forces of change:" Forces of change are factors that have the ability to affect the system positively or negatively. Participants identified 27 forces of change that were categorized as internal or external. Internal forces refer to those over which stakeholders have more control, such as forest sector financing, while external forces are those over which stakeholders have little or no control, such as climate change. 3. Selecting "key driving forces" that impact forest tenure security: Key driving forces are the priority forces of change that, with limited time, financial and other resources, would yield the greatest effects on the system. Six key driving forces were selected.
4. Formulating possible future scenarios: Through facilitated discussion on possible future "states" (directions) that driving forces could take, four scenarios were formulated. Two were desirable and two undesirable. 5. Developing action plans: The PPA process ends with the participatory identification of feasible action plans to promote desirable scenarios and mitigate undesirable scenarios.

Driving forces
The graph is divided into four sections:   Table 1 for descriptions of selected drivers).

Comparing driving forces identified at national and district levels
Comparing the key driving forces identified at PPA workshops at district and the national levels reveals similarities and differences. 7 Governance is a common driving force identified by all three districts and at the national level (see Table 2). Another common driving force is the roles and capacity of local communities in making and implementing forest tenure reforms. Equally, the influence of cultural institutions was identified as a force of change in all workshops, and prioritized as a key driving force in three of four. The national-level workshop identified two unique driving forces, namely development partner priorities and land tenure legislation. It is understandable that nationallevel participants identified such forces, as they are aware of the impact of these national and international factors. Although the projects that development partners finance may occur locally, they generally interact with national-level government. National ministries also handle land tenure regulation and issues, despite attempts to decentralize the process.
Unique key driving forces were also identified in each district. Kibaale identified migration and resettlement policies and enforcement of forest laws and policies,

Development partners (Donor_Prior)
The importance of forestry to development partners.
• Forest sector reforms and their implementation in Uganda have relied heavily on technical and financial support from donor countries through bilateral and multilateral arrangements. As a result, if development partner priorities switch to other sectors or countries, implementation of forest tenure reforms in Uganda will be seriously affected, impacting forest tenure security for forest-dependent communities.
Norms and beliefs (Nor_Bel) Changes in behaviour and practices, particularly within forest-adjacent communities.
• Practices that prevent women from owning and inheriting forest land, and discourage women from making decisions on forest tenure rights, continue to affect women's forest tenure rights. In northern Uganda, the weakening of strong cultural institutions, which have until now been responsible for forest land distribution among clan members, is threatening customary forest tenure security for both individuals and groups. However, community/collaborative forest management tenure rights will be minimally influenced by this factor, as they rely more on law-governing associations than on norms and beliefs.
Forest governance (Gov) Ethics within and among forest management governance structures, rules, relationships and stakeholders (professionalism, transparency and accountability, political atmosphere, decision-making, bylaws and policies).
• Stakeholders observed that despite Uganda having people-centered policies, if policy implementation is not guided by professional ethics of transparency and accountability, ineffective coordination across governance levels will result in the tenure rights of forest-dependent communities being threatened.

Capacity of communities (Cap_Comm)
Skills, level of knowledge, and ability of forest-adjacent community regarding securing forest tenure rights.
• When stakeholders lack capacity (resources, financial, technical) and key knowledge of their tenure rights, they are unable to fully exercise them or implement action plans aimed at attaining forest tenure security.

Forest sector financing (For_Sec_Fin)
Possibility of forest agencies and communities acquiring funds specifically for securing forest tenure rights of forest-dependent communities.
• Stakeholders noted that funds are currently allocated towards forest conservation activities, such as managing central forest reserves, while community forestry and collaborative forest management remain underfunded, which compromises local people's forest tenure rights.

Land tenure legal literacy (Land_Reg)
Awareness-raising among forest-adjacent communities on existing land registration policies and laws.
• When community members are empowered to discuss land and forest tenure right issues, positive impacts follow regarding forest tenure security, as they are able to fight for their rights.
given increasing land tensions between locals, immigrants and absentee landlords. Masindi identified oil, gas and other industries as a key driving force, given increasing land scarcity due to economic migration into the district, following oil and gas discovery. Lamwo identified the role of NGOs and market forces as key driving forces, given increasing NGO activity following the end of a ten-year civil war (see Table 3).

Comparing driving forces identified by districtlevel women with those of the national-level mixed gender group
Forestry management technical capacity appears as a priority for national-level stakeholders and for women in all districts. At the national level and in Kibaale and Masindi districts, the availability of finances was prioritized. While national-level stakeholders were concerned with the need to increase finances for the entire forestry sector, district-level women were specifically concerned with how women can access finances for personal forestry investments. Accessibility of land for forestry investments was also identified as a priority for women in Masindi and Lamwo districts.

Scenario building
National workshop participants then envisioned scenarios depicting what the future of forest tenure security could look like, depending on how key driving forces unfold over time. In the PPA process, the evolution of driving forces is known as "states." Stakeholders used a combination of different states for each force to generate two desirable and two undesirable scenarios. Desirable scenarios arise when a key driving force has become supportive of  forest tenure security, while undesirable scenarios are generated when a key driving force becomes a barrier.
The first two scenarios that participants envisioned, representing desirable futures, were characterized by: adequate government and development funding; effective involvement of well-informed, local communities capable of decision-making; good coordination between state and non-state actors and across governance levels; gender equity; and respect for cultural norms and beliefs that protect forest tenure rights of forest-dependent communities. State and nonstate agencies have the capacity to protect stakeholder rights, including those of forest-adjacent communities that are empowered to fight for their rights.
Conversely, the two scenarios representing undesirable futures saw changing government and development priorities impacting the sector, with poor coordination and funding leading to unsustainable forest management. This impacts negatively on the forest tenure security of forest-adjacent communities, which is no longer a priority of governments and development partners.

Action planning
To conclude the workshop, stakeholders engaged in an action planning exercise, aimed at facilitating desirable outcomes and preventing undesirable ones. Participants highlighted the need to actualize forest governance reforms, and draw up a viable plan of action in which sustainable financing for the sector is key, noting that without such action, forest tenure security will remain elusive. The proposed detailed action plan was organized according to key driving forces, and included a list of responsible agencies (see Table 4). Table 5 compares the national and district action plans.

Conclusions
The PPA workshops provided a platform for multistakeholder consultation on the forest tenure rights of forest-dependent communities in Uganda as a whole. National-level stakeholders emphasized the importance of funding and development partners, and inter-departmental and multi-stakeholder coordination in planning and implementing policies for secure tenure rights. Conversely, district-level stakeholders emphasized locally-specific influencing factors, including the limits of rights granted, local community capacity, and the role of cultural institutions, the private sector and civil society in supporting local people's forest tenure rights.
Reflecting on past and current realities, stakeholders were able to envisage possible future scenarios depending on the potential evolutions of key driving forces. Stakeholders were generally optimistic, contending that recent reforms and the existence of willing partners, particularly communities, politicians, civil society organizations and development partners, create an enabling environment for participatory planning and resource availability for effective implementation of forest tenure reforms.
Stakeholders made several recommendations to improve forest governance, namely: increasing financial and technical resources for effective implementation of plans to secure forest tenure rights of forest-dependent communities; simplifying and making affordable the procedure for forest and land registration; and reducing local communities' dependence on forest resources.