Assessing community-based organizations' influence on trees and grass planting for forest, soil and water management around Mt. Elgon National Park in Uganda. Issue 3 (2nd July 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Shaban, Kato Stonewall; Okumu, James Okot; Paul, Okullo; Joseph, Obua
• Is Part Of: Forests, trees and livelihoods. Volume 25:Issue 3(2016)
• Page Start: 161
• Page End: 172
• Publication Date: 2016-07-02
• Subjects: Community participation -- deforestation -- environmental services -- farmers -- biodiversity -- tree planting -- trees outside forest; Agroforestry -- Periodicals; Forest management -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Agroforesterie -- Périodiques; Forêts -- Gestion -- Aspect social -- Périodiques; 634.9
• DOI: 10.1080/14728028.2015.1102094
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1472-8028

Abstract

Abstract: Mt. Elgon ecosystem is one of the most important watersheds in the East African region rich in biodiversity but extremely fragile and vulnerable to degradation effects such as landslides and soil erosion with heavy negative impact on local peoples' livelihoods. Farmers carry out tree and grass planting in an effort to manage forest, soil, and water. In 2013, we assessed the influence of community-based organizations (CBOs) on on-farm trees and grass planting around Mt. Elgon National Park (MENP) with the aim of determining its impact on the community forestry strategy. Data were collected from 364 households in 52 villages and entered in MS excel. R statistical environment was used to perform Redundancy Analysis and Hierarchical Clustering of planted species outside forest, among other analysis. The presence of functional community-based organizations ( F 1, 119 = 9.08, p < 0.001), respondents training ( F 1, 119 = 2.28, p < 0.028), and landholding ( F 1, 119 = 1.99, p < 0.048) was found to significantly influence trees and grass planting around MENP. It is recommended that more CBOs be formed to increase community participation and effectiveness in on-farm trees and grass planting in order to increase environmental services benefits.