The Albertine Rift, Uganda
Project Summary
Uganda’s Albertine Rift area’s unique geology creates a stunning landscape of rivers, crater lakes, wide valleys, and montane forests. It is a hotspot for endemism and its importance and recognition as a refuge for primates has led to the creation of many protected areas and reserves across the Rift’s forests.
However, outside of these areas, deforestation of native trees for agriculture and timber has encroached into the reserves themselves, as well as fragmenting the wider landscape and threatening the ecological connectivity vital for countless species.
ECOTRUST’s Trees for Global Benefits programme (TGB) is a long-term, carbon sequestration project working with rural farmers in three areas of Uganda. Trees for Global Benefits supports farmers to move to alternative farming practices and plant native trees to support agroforestry activities, improve livelihoods, and bolster resilience and adaptability to climate change.
BIOME
Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests
ECOREGION
Albertine Rift montane forests
HABITATS
Tropical montane rainforest
METHOD FOR LAND PROTECTION
Planting native trees on small farms enhances landscape connectivity and protects forests by offering alternative firewood and timber sources, reducing deforestation.
Biodiversity
The Albertine Rift is an area of exceptional endemism and contains many species threatened with global extinction, particularly within the mountain forest habitats. Within the project area, the native forests that make up the wider Bugoma-Budongo corridor are home to a staggering 52% of Africa’s bird species, 19% of its amphibians, 14% of its reptiles, and 14% of its plants.
But what makes these forests so singularly important is the home they provide to primates. Here, the last remaining 5,000 Chimpanzees of Uganda’s wild population live alongside Blue, Red-tailed, Vervet, and Black and White Colobus Monkeys, as well as Olive Baboons. The surrounding landscape is a roaming ground for iconic large mammals including African Elephant, Giraffe and Lion.
Main Threats To The Area
The forests and woodlands of the area are at risk of being converted into agricultural land and suffer from the unsustainable harvesting of wood for timber, firewood, and charcoal.
The Albertine Rift, is a biodiversity hotspot, Endemic Bird Area, and a priority Eco-Region.
Local Communities
The communities of the Albertine Rift are a myriad of small family-run farms typically less than a hectare (2.5 acres) in size, with only a few larger plots of no more than 2.5 hectares (6.2 acres), growing a range of crops from maize, beans, and sweet potatoes to bananas, citrus fruits, and pineapples for markets and to feed their families. The landscape is also used to grow sugarcane as farmland is often rented to outside companies, and natural forest replaced with fast-growing exotics such as eucalyptus for both local use and sale.
Farmers partnered with TGB have developed a diverse range of businesses and services within their local communities to secure their own income and supply goods and services to local people. TGB also strengthens land rights by supporting local community groups to acquire formal titles of communal forest ownership.
