Rethinking natural resource governance for ecosystem sustainability through development of landscape level outcomes: a case study of landcare in Eastern Africa

The status of the natural resource base has been on the decline despite concerted efforts from various interventions over the last several decades. Increasingly the scarcity of natural resources has resulted in the perpetuation of poverty for the local communities who’s almost total dependence on the NR creates a vicious cycle of degradation and poverty. An eroded cultural fabric coupled with poor local level implementation of natural resource management policies, in-equitable use of natural resources as well as unclear and often contested tenure rights have made invalid the traditional interventions hitherto in use. A number of structural constraints are evident in the failure of past interventions, which include; lack of local level ownership of natural resource management initiatives; non-integration of production versus conservation; individual, self-styled and often competing approaches that disregard landscape level outcomes; the potential of using the district as a nexus for integrating conservation and development underutilized, and often pervasive. The paper describes a case study of the development of a district level innovation platform in Kapchorwa district in Eastern Uganda. It highlights the role played by different stakeholders in developing effective farmer institutions, and how through vertical and horizontal integration the farmer institutions have championed an empowerment process that support collective action and decision making at the district level.

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