Contributions of Kagombe Central Forest Reserve to livelihoods of people in Muhoro sub county, Kagadi district

Abstract

Forests support the livelihoods of a vast number of people through subsistence and commercial use of forest products such as forest foods, medicinal plants; cash income obtained from the sale of these products and more ecological benefits. Also Uganda‟s forests are threatened by unsustainable use and conversion to alternative land uses. In spite of the consequences of forest degradation and biodiversity loss and reliance of communities on forests livelihoods, there is little empirical data on the role of forest resources in the livelihoods of local communities. Sociodemographic and forest data use were obtained through interviewing 100 households and it was found out that 64% of the respondents were males and only 36% were females, most of them carried out crop growing as their livelihood activity and the least being salary work. According to the study 46% of the respondents obtained forest foods from the forest,70% obtained fuel wood and only 26% of the respondents utilized the forest for herbal medicines. Income from the forest only 30% of the respondents obtained income from the forest through sale of different forest products e.g. forest foods and other activities in the forest for example forest management activities. Lastly the study also revealed that conservation measures taken were both individual and managers of the forest respectively. The major activity carried out by the managers of the forest was forest patrolling and the individual measure was acquiring licenses. The above results provide valuable information on the contributions of forest resources to the livelihoods and could be applied in developing policies for enhancing livelihoods of forest dependent people.