Protecting and conserving water and forest ecosystems in the Mpanga and Semliki catchments, Uganda

Communities within the Mpanga and Semliki catchments strengthen the resilience of the landscape and ecosystem services for a triple win on the domain of climate, biodiversity and wellbeing of people in the communities This outcome will be based on a joint intervention between BOS+ and Join For Water within landscapes of the Mpanga and Semliki Catchments in western Uganda. The focus of the outcome will be to help restore the balance between human and environmental needs towards strengthening resilience of the landscape as a social-ecological system, including better ecosystem services provision. To this end, the outcome will strengthen and support communities in their knowledge and implementation towards conservation, restoration and more sustainable management of (agro)ecosystems (strategic change 4) (incl. forests, wetlands, riverbanks, etc.). This focus is important to ensure sustainable water and food provision, as well as to help combat climate change impacts and other socio-ecological pressures. To reach this, a landscape approach will be adopted, which starts from a multistakeholder perspective to include the needs and interests of a wide variety of people living and working within a landscape. This will be facilitated through catchment and natural resource management committees. Policy advocacy at local and national level will contribute to a framework that facilitates better water and forest management following a rights-based logic (strategic change 1). Enhanced ecosystem integrity and access to ecosystem services (such as water provision and agricultural outputs) will be driven by local stakeholders themselves through improved knowledge (strategic change 2) and restored provision and access to ecosystem services (strategic change 3).