Safeguarding the forest tenure rights of forest-dependent communities in Uganda: Insights from a national-level Participatory Prospective Analysis workshop

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.