Mabira Forest Reserve Restoration Programme Launched

Nature Uganda (NU) in collaboration with the National Forestry Authority (NFA) are working together to restore degraded areas of Mabira Central Forest Reserve as a way of strengthening the capacity of forest remnants of the Lake Victoria belt to sequester atmospheric carbon-dioxide while continuing to conserve biodiversity and sustainably provide other much need eco-system services and livelihood support communities living around them. This is under the Trillion Trees Programme, a global forest restoration program coordinated by BirdLife International, Wildlife Conservation Society and World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

As part of the on-going restoration programme, a launch was organized on the 29^th March 2023 to raise awareness for the need to conserve Mabira Forest and advocate for increased protection of the site at local, national and international levels.

During the launch, Nature Uganda supported the local communities and the Collaborative Forest Management (CFM) around the restoration area with 40 Energy Saving Savings and 40 Beehives in order to reduce dependence on the forest especially for firewood.

Mabira forest is part of a few remnant forest fragments that once formed the vast of semi-evergreen rainforest in the Victoria Basin forest-savanna mosaic ecoregion. The forest is situated in an urban centre and is under immense pressure from expanding urban settlements. Mabira forest is surrounded by fast-growing the fast growing towns of Lugazi, Njeru, Nakibize, Buikwe, Kagulimira, Kayunga, and Mukono, and about 80 villages including highly populated 14 enclaves measuring about 2,660 Ha with approximately population size of about 200,000 persons.

NatureUganda has been working with NFA and the local communities to improve forest management (reducing of illegal harvesting of forest products) in a 500 Ha section of Mabira Forest through the Collaborative Forest Management (CFM).
70 Ha of the degraded sections of Mabira Central Forest Reserve were re-planted with indigenous trees in December 2022

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