Background

The Bwindi Mgahinga Conservation Trust (BMCT) was established in 1995, the first environmental endowment fund to be launched in Africa, and a model for the development of similar trust funds elsewhere on the continent ever since. The Trust was established to support the conservation of biodiversity in the Bwindi Impenetrable and Mgahinga Gorilla National Parks in south-west Uganda, which protect some of the most biologically diverse tropical forests in East Africa and are home to more than half the world’s remaining mountain gorillas. The Trust’s activities are built around three main pillars: 1) support to community livelihoods and conservation in the 54 parishes surrounding the two parks; 2) support to park management through the Uganda Wildlife Authority; and 3) research and ecological monitoring to support conservation and development action. After 10 years of operations, the Trust decided on the need to carry out a comprehensive review of their activities and impacts, to inform their future operations, provide a basis for future fund-raising efforts, and to disseminate important practical experience and lessons to assist other similar conservation finance initiatives in Africa and beyond.

Our contribution

Based on previous experience with developing and evaluating conservation finance mechanisms, as well as our extensive practical experience with integrated conservation and development programmes in south-west Uganda, CDC was asked to undertake this 10-year performance review, with the aim of identifying the key lessons, challenges and successes over the decade of operations, and of providing clearly articulated recommendations on how the Trust can improve the effectiveness of their future activities. This work involved an extensive review of background literature and previous studies, followed by a series of consultations with a variety of stakeholders involved in the Trust’s management and activities, both in Kampala as well as on the ground in SW Uganda. During this work, we had the opportunity to meet with numerous community groups with hands-on experience at working with the Trust, including local farmers, school groups, local leaders and representatives of the indigenous Batwa tribe who are an important focus of the Trust’s activities. Our work showed that the BMCT has overall been highly successful in delivering its field programme and has been instrumental in generating increased support and capacity for natural resources conservation in the Bwindi-Mgahinga area. We provided specific recommendations on how performance could be enhanced in future, and prepared a series of leaflets providing succinct overviews of aspects of the Trust’s work to support future fund-raising efforts. The review also looked at the collaboration mechanisms established by the Trust to facilitate community participation in their activities, and proposed a number of recommendations aimed at streamlining these mechanisms to make them more effective and sustainable, and to enhance grassroots community participation.

Customers