Protected areas to improve biodiversity on agricultural land, ecological networking and the implementation of REDD+ measures
In Africa, land use management often lacks the necessary institutional mechanisms required to simplify dialogue with local communities, and to successfully accommodate competing claims and interests. This constitutes a serious obstacle to the implementation of national policy measures and programmes that have the aim of balancing development against conservation efforts. This project aimed to harmonise conservation efforts with local development projects. To achieve this, it improved the use of the protected area categories of ‘protected landscapes/marine protected areas’ and ‘protected areas with sustainable use of natural resources’. Project activities were integrated with pre-existing institutional and political structures. The end result was the development and implementation of REDD+ programmes, national strategies and action plans for biological diversity, strategies for combating poverty, and programmes for economic growth.
- Countries
- The Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda
- IKI funding
- 5,698,983.00 €
- Duration
- 05/2017 till 12/2023
- Status
- completed
- Implementing organisation
- International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) - Switzerland
- Political Partner
-
- Forestry Commission - Ghana
- Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Tourism (MECNT) - DR Congo
- Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources - Ghana
- Ministry of Water and Environment - Uganda
- The Vice-President's Office - Tanzania
- Implementing Partner
-
- African Wildlife Foundation (AWF)
- The Forests Dialogue (TFD)
State of implementation/results
- Project completed.
- The project established and engaged national/sub-national cross-sectoral governance working groups (GWGs) in each country to enhance participatory landscape governance. It worked with target landscape stakeholders and GWGs to analyse existing practices, data sources and land-use policies and define and pilot enhanced community governance arrangements and financial support mechanisms.
- Several multi-level dialogues were organised, bringing together community members, multi-stakeholder platforms/GWGs and sectoral partners. Furthermore, the project engaged in several multi-stakeholder policy dialogues to advance the implementation of the landscape approach. For example, the Agroforest Multi-stakeholder policy dialogue in January 2022 at Morogoro-Tanzania and the Wildlife Corridor restoration workshop in Morogoro in February 2022.
- The project provided inputs into several national and subnational processes to enhance participatory landscape governance, such as the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) Citizens Manifesto on Climate Change, plans and strategies for the Agoro-Agu Landscape in Uganda. Moreover, different stakeholders were trained as part of the project activities. For example, technical staff from authorities and the civil sector in Uganda were trained in forest management planning using a landscape approach, land use dialogues, data collection, and collation. In Ghana, 345 beekeepers were trained and registered to form associations and co-operatives in the Mole Ecological landscape.
- During the pandemic, the project prioritised consolidating and disseminating knowledge and learning through various publications to share and showcase them at important international policy processes such as the UNFCC COP26, CBD COP15, and the IUCN Conservation Congress.
- In 2022, the project helped organise the IUCN Africa Protected Areas Congress (APAC). It contained a panel discussion to highlight the need for integrating the landscape approach into One Health. Following the APAC, the project initiated a series of national and landscape-level workshops on the One Health approach. For example, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the project organised a workshop in February 2023, bringing together nearly forty representatives of ministries (including those from health, livestock, and veterinarians) with conservation actors to share knowledge on zoonotic diseases.
- One project priority was to enhance livelihood options for local communities. For example, the project helped establish a Conservation Trust Fund in Ghana to provide long-term financial sustainability for Community Resource Management Areas and organised a stakeholder consultation workshop to identify long-term funding opportunities for prioritised livelihood activities. In Uganda, over 150 farmers were trained in beekeeping, an activity prioritised by the local community. The community also planned to restore 50 hectares of agricultural land through Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration, which will support local livelihoods in the long term.
- Since 2022, the project has worked to integrate and mainstream the One Health approach. They work closely with partner countries' One Health (OH) platforms. Numerous One Health capacity-building workshops for different stakeholder groups were conducted.
Latest Update:
04/2025
Project relations
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