Status of ICT in Uganda’s commercial forestry sector

Abstract

ABSTRACT Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are the technologies used in the obtaining, conveying, manipulating and storing of data by electronic means. These technologies are gaining a foothold in service delivery and have several characteristics that drive major transformations. This study sought to evaluate the utilization of the different ICT tools in the management of a plantation forest. Employees from three companies, i.e. Corewoods Hoima, Global Woods and New Forests company were selected and interviewed about the different ICT tools they use in Plantation forest management. The methods employed included use of questionnaires and secondary data. The results show that there are a number of different ICT tools such as GIS, Microsoft, Computers, phones, among others that are currently being employed in forest management in Uganda. Despite their utilization, there are many challenges faced including limited knowledge in some aspects while using them, power instability, mull functionality, network problems, among others. There are however many other ICT tools that could be utilized in forest management in Uganda but are currently not utilized. These include Micro forest, fortes, among others and it can therefore be concluded that although there is an attempt to utilize ICT tools in forest management in Uganda, the potential seems not fully exploited as there are more tools that are yet to be utilized in Uganda. It is therefore recommended that emphasis be put into multi-stakeholder cooperation to realize the best out of ICTs in the commercial forestry sector in Uganda as this has potential to increase the returns from forestry investments.