Mr. Muhindo James of ACODE spearheading vote counting to elect the new steering committee of Uganda Forest Working Group (UFWG), which took place on 12th March 2020 at Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala

The Platform comprises of stakeholders engaged in various development initiatives that target to conserve the environment and natural resources within Agoro-Agu central forest reserve landscape through good governance and better service delivery. The platform provides space for the stakeholders to coordinate and jointly engage in policy lobbying and advocacy with a collective voice and also provides opportunities for capacity building through learning and information sharing so as to ensure evidence based advocacy towards good governance of the country’s natural resources. However the Platform was not operating in a vacuum, but rather its engagements were and are linked with similar initiatives at the regional and national levels through the Uganda Forestry Working Group (UFWG) regional node for Northern Uganda and the UFWG and Environment and Natural resources Civil Society Organizations (ENR-CSO) Network respectively, whose secretariats are hosted at Environmental Alert.

Governance of the platform needed to be streamlined through establishment of a steering committee in place with clear terms of reference that together with the institution selected to host the Platform Secretariat would help in guiding the development and implementation of the platform activities. A Local Environment and Natural Resources Civil Society Organizations in Agoro-Agu CFR landscape (i.e. Agoro International Vocational Institute) was identified by the various stakeholders in the platform as the host for secretariat for platform. These structures fronted the advocacy issues and concerns of the platform and the landscape.  

 Key advocacy issues for the Platform:

The platform through its structures was able to identify Key advocacy issues.

1. Government/Policy Related: Government development initiatives are centered on social and infrastructure development with limited consideration for environment and natural resource protection Such is the construction of Sub county Headquarters, schools, health centers in and or adjacent to CFRs, military/security institutions like the Prison farm in Agoro, barracks and sub county Headquarters in Pajimu e.t.c
2. Political Intervention: Political pronouncement in 2006 by the president banning eviction of encroachers greatly affected management of CFRs. Recent proclamation is that encroachers should be contained and not evicted from the CFRs. Similar ongoing ban on allocation of degraded areas to investors for tree planting has exposed degraded forests to even more detrimental practices like land use change for Urbanization
3. Institution/Management Related Issues such as: Lack of transport to enable staff move to the field visa viz the size of the Forests; Limited funds /facilitation to staff; Connivance of local leadership with the culprits; Poor road network to the forest; Wild fires; Thin staffing by NFA.
4. Unclear Resource Sharing strategy: Most of the CFRs in this region were gazetted as core sites for biodiversity conservation, and as such, little or no revenue is realized from these forests thus the communities do not see direct benefits from the Forest.
5. Geographic location of Agoro-Agu affecting Transboundary Resource Management. NFA is faced with a challenge of hostile illegal forest resource users from South Sudan and Northern parts of Kenya.
6. Poor coordination of ministries, institutions and development partners, for example:
7. Licenses issued by the ministry of energy and mineral development to carry out exploration/mining in the CFR.
8. Ministry of Education to have schools constructed in the reserve

Governance and Structures of the Agoro-Agu Landscape Platform

The Platform developed a Memorandum of Principles (MoP) to provide for governance, membership, co-ordination and operation of the Platform. The MoP provides general assembly comprising all members of the platform, steering committee and the secretariat.

The General Assembly

The general assembly is the supreme organ of the Platform where members meet to formulate broad policies and programmes, revise constitutions, if necessary elect executive members of the steering committee and decide on any matters of interest to the platform.

The steering committee:

The steering committee operates upon instructions of the general assembly to ensure smooth running of the platform. The steering committee is composed of 7 members who include: Host Institution, Cultural Institution, Kitgum Women Peace Initiative, UFWG Node for Northern Uganda, Lamwo Farmers and Environmental Conservation Association, Kitgum NGO Forum, and Forest Adjacent Community Representative. The Steering Committee chairperson was also put in place among themselves and the Host Institution is the Secretariat for the Steering Committee. The members of the steering committee are required to serve on voluntary basis. The committee is rotational after 2 years by vote and the members could be re-elected based on their performance.

The Secretariat

The secretariat has a coordinator who is responsible for implementing the programmes of the platform. The coordinator organizes communication and information shifting, advocacy and lobbying programmes

 Objectives of the Agoro-Agu Landscape Platform

The objectives of the Agoro-Agu Platform spins around four major objectives, which are aimed at enhancing the capacity of the different stakeholders to manage the natural resources effectively.

1. To mobilize individuals, institutions and CSOs engaged in the forestry sector to support the implementation of the national forestry policy and national forestry plan;
2. To advocate for promotion, compliance and accountability of government with respect to its policy commitments and private sector activities;
3. To ensure that individuals, institutions and CSOs engaged in forestry sector progressively develop capacity in policy analysis, advocacy and independent monitoring;
4. To ensure that the implementation of the forestry policy and forest plan remains pro-poor focused and enhances sustainable use and productivity of the Uganda’s forest estate.

Membership and composition of the Agoro-Agu Landscape Platform

The Agoro-Agu Platform shall be a consortium of civil society organizations, academic institutions and individuals who are engaged in the promotion and development of forestry activities and practices in the Agoro Agu Landscape. A total of sixty one (61) members have been so far registered and they are all from the different sub-counties (Agoro, Paloga, Padibe East and West, Lokung, Madi-Opei and Palabek Kal sub-counties) within Lamwo District. Majority of this members fall under individual categories of the membership and their membership, Network and Forums are subscribed to Lamwo Farmers Environmental Association, LWF, Tree Talk, AIVI and the Northern Uganda Forest Working Group.

Why Join Agoro-Agu Landscape Platform

Organizations and individuals join the Agoro-Agu Platform for the following reasons;

1. To contribute to the ongoing forest sector reforms and developments
2. To share knowledge and experiences within and outside the landscape.
3. To be linked to like-minded organizations to build synergies for information sharing and capacity building
4. To be part of the dynamic and focuses network of Uganda Forest Working Group which is involved in advocacy and lobbying on forestry issues