Profiling private forest owners and contractors in Hoima district

Abstract

Forest plantations in Uganda have become an attractive long-term investment due to the availability of incentives and good financial prospects. As a result, a new group of entrepreneurs has emerged, establishing forest contracting companies from which services can be outsourced. These contractors now play an important role in the timber supply chain. However, data on their operational methods and the viability of the owner-contractor interaction is scanty in Uganda. Thus, this study aimed at filling that gap. The objective of the study was to profile private forest owners and contractors. A descriptive research study was conducted on 40 forest owners and 40 forest contractors in Hoima district. Respondents data was collected using two separate open-ended questionnaires for each category. Data analysis was done using IBM SPSS 26.0. A p-value of <0.05 was used as a criterion for statistical significance. Forest owners were typically middle-aged men who had recently started investing in forestry with primarily financial motivations. The most-reported motivation was income (90%) while the most reported challenge was labour management (75%). Forest contractors were typically newly established small and medium enterprises that conducted non-mechanised operations with mainly part-time workers. 60% of contractors operated as a registered company. Less than half (42.5%) of forest owners utilised services of contractors, the majority of whom (94.1%) reported gaining benefits while 70.6% experienced challenges of some sort. Collectively, the study highlights important aspects of the interaction between forest owners and contractors and provides information to help policymakers design successful strategies to stimulate the growth of forestry enterprises.