Building Climate Resilient Communities & Sustainable Landscapes
Our Thematic Nexus
ECOTRUST has designed interventions that address the nexus between biodiversity, climate change and sustainable livelihoods in an integrated manner as opposed to a single thematic focus. These thematic areas are interlinked through conservation finance and environmental outcomes.
We work with poor rural communities in vulnerable landscapes where poverty and climate change hurt the most. We undertake biodiversity conservation to enhance their adaptive capacity and mitigation potential to ensure improved environmental management and sustainable livelihoods where it matters the most. We provide performance-based payments to smallholders undertaking conservation initiatives as an incentive for them to invest in reducing the decline of nature and ensuring regenerative landscapes that steward biodiversity and ecosystems.
Our mission is to “conserve biological diversity and enhance social welfare by promoting innovative and sustainable environmental management”. We deliver conservation finance “where it matters most” – to thousands of smallholders undertaking restoration as a business in rural communities. We deliver conservation finance through innovative community structures and solutions that attract additional capital from private sector to invest in the green opportunities represented by landscape restoration as a business. We make innovative restoration investments that promote climate resilient solutions on a commercial basis and crowd-in private sector finance by playing an intermediary role and undertaking leadership in marketing environmental services.
Our Overall Goal over the next period will be: “Enhanced livelihoods, adaptive capacity and mitigation potential of 16.5 million people in partner communities and landscapes in 33 Districts of Uganda by supporting smallholder-led reforestation, restoration and improved management of at least 60,000ha of degraded land, over the next 5 years”.
Strategic objectives
Our 5 Year Strategic
Direction
Our overall goal over the next period will be: “Enhanced livelihoods, adaptive capacity and mitigation potential of 16.5 million people in partner communities and landscapes in 33 Districts of Uganda by supporting smallholder-led reforestation, restoration and improved management of at least 60,000ha of degraded land, over the next 5 years”. This goal will be achieved through 4 strategic objectives:
STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE 4
BUILD A STRONG, EFFECTIVE AND EFFICIENT ORGANIZATION OF CHOICE IN DELIVERING A TRIPLE-WIN BIODIVERSITY, CLIMATE CHANGE AND SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOODS’ OUTCOME “WHERE IT MATTERS MOST”
ECOTRUST has grown significantly over the past 22 years of existence. SO4 will invest in building the financial resilience of the organization to ensure sustainability. SO4 will invest in automated systems and a strong workforce that will lift the organization to new visibility and professional levels over the next period. SO4 will invest in building strategic partnerships and consortia that will support new levels of resource mobilization and a broader projects portfolio. SO4 with support professional participation in key national and international biodiversity, climate change and sustainable development processes to deliver ECOTRUST positions and views on sustainable approaches that deliver impact where it “matters most” SO4 will consolidate the overall TGB business model and the blended financing approach that has built the flagship Trees for Global Benefit program into a program that defines ECOTRUST value. The key result areas under SO4 will include:
Building financial resilience and sustainability – SO4 will support the building financial assets including a true Endowment Fund (EF); growing the land trust and grant management business lines; and further capitalizing the Quasi Endowment. SO4 will also support resource mobilisation to grow annual turnover from US$2m to US$10 over the next 5 years; and increase the share of public financing in the annual budget to 50%
Growing the project portfolio and staff compliment – SO4 will support project proposal development and fund raising to grow project portfolio to 50% budget share. SO4 will support the establishment of a Technical Associates Program for strategic recruitment and retention of a reliable and stable workforce to support program expansion. SO4 will support policy and expert engagement to raise ECOTRUST professional visibility at all levels and build partnerships and consortia for enhanced resource mobilisation.
Automation of systems for enhanced efficacy – SO4 will support the already on-going system automation in finance, monitoring and evaluation and performance measurement and appraisal. This will be complementary to the already advanced cloud computing systems linked to Office 365.
Institutional growth and development – SO4 will support the on-going process of establishing an Advisory Council as the topmost governance structure of ECOTRUST. SO4 will support further development, documentation and sharing of the ECOTRUST impact narrative. SO4 will support the internalization and implementation of the new strategic plan and the development of a Business Plan for rolling it out over the next five years. SO4 will support the growth of all business lines and the overall restoration as a business model in ECOTRUST programming. SO4 will support the business development approach across all landscapes. SO4 will support a robust risk management system over the next five years
STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE 3
CO-ARRANGEMENTS TO PROTECT THE ECOLOGICAL INTEGRITY AND FUNCTIONALITY OF NATURAL CAPITAL IN PROTECTED AREAS AND OTHER EFFECTIVE AREA-BASED CONSERVATION MEASURES (OECMS) TO GENERATE GOODS AND SERVICES THAT BENEFIT LOCAL COMMUNITIES AND BIODIVERSITY
SO3 contributes to SDG 15 that seeks to protect, restore, and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss. Without tangible benefits from conservation, communities will not value the protected areas, which is likely to result into increased risks as communities focus on the unsustainable extraction of resources for their own use. SO3 will support organized community-based organizations to acquire equitable and inclusive resource access and benefit sharing from protected areas through nature-based solutions. SO3 will support sustainable tourism initiatives and use eco-tourism as a tool to reduce threats to biodiversity and conserve critical ecosystems across diverse landscapes to ensure sustained economic growth. Key result areas under SO3 will include
Grants and Co-arrangements to organized community groups (CFM, CBOs, Consortia) to enable interact with and benefit from protected areas through nature-based solutions as provided by law. This will include grants to community groups responsible for OEACMs and convergencies to develop eco-businesses and eco-enterprises within Pas and OEACMs. Grants will be administered through several facilities within the ECOTRUST Green Investment Ventures (GIVES) Platform – a grant making framework
Policy Engagement and Advocacy – direct engagement and professional contributions to key national and international biodiversity conservation, climate change and sustainable development policy frameworks. This will include providing expert advice to government, donor partners and other stakeholders in designing incentives schemes for conservation. This will also include undertaking join research with prominent research institutions and publishing articles and models in peer reviewed journals.
Capacity building, communication and awareness interventions – innovative community-based monitoring programmes for tracking threats and opportunities to conservation leading to behavioral change communication programmes; Using multi-media to document and communicate relevant aspects of OEACMs as well as the evolution of policies and best practices of OACMs as protected areas; Running capacity development events and facilitating lesson sharing among diverse rights holders and stakeholders
STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE 2
INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIPS WITH PRIVATE FOREST OWNERS, GOVERNMENT, COMMUNITIES AND OTHER STAKEHOLDERS TO ENSURE PROTECTION OF FUNCTIONAL HABITAT CONNECTIVITY AND CONTRIBUTION TO SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOODS
SO2 will support investment partnerships and other interventions aimed at establishing other effective area-based conservation measures (OEACMs) that can achieve effective in-situ conservation of biodiversity outside of protected areas. SO2 will support interventions that foster engagement with a range of rights holders and stakeholders who contribute to area-based conservation outside protected areas. SO2 will support interventions that enhance connectivity between protected areas across landscapes – establishing wildlife corridors as conservation areas. SO2 will address climate change by contributing to net zero policy engagement and awareness: and building resilience to the physical impacts of climate change through nature-based solutions. SO2 will also support sustainable landscapes and livelihoods through landscape-wide business cases that attack private sector investments; and multi-stakeholder investment platforms coordinating landscape-wide investment plans. Key result areas under SO2 will include:
Land Trusteeships and Conservancies – This is the oldest of ECOTRUST programme areas dedicated to improving the management of land outside the protected area system. SO2 will continue to support interventions and partnerships that hold land in trust on behalf of individual PFOs, Community Groups and other stakeholders for improved forest management and biodiversity conservation. This will include establishment of community conservancies responsible for preservation of natural resources (e.g., Community Land Associations) as self-governing entities and developing eco-tourism, eco-lodges and other green business opportunities.
Corridor Establishment Programs – This is another program area that has become prominent especially in the Murchison Landscape. SO2 will support interventions that further support restoring connectivity in wildlife corridors – especially those connecting forest reserves in various landscapes. SO2 will support interventions that survey and map critical connectivity linkages that need restoration. SO2 will support land acquisition, ecosystem restoration and sustainability investments and partnerships for the establishment of connectivity in key corridors
Gender and financial inclusion – of marginalized groups in conservation investments. This will support interventions in gender mainstreaming methodologies (e.g., Gender Action and Learning Systems (GALS)) in partner communities and landscapes; Gendered green investments campaigns for youth and women; and youth and women conservation initiatives; and advocacy initiatives for Gender in Conservation
Smallholder Business Case Development for sustainable Forest Management – including designing forest-based green enterprises for TGB farmer groups to sustain woodlots beyond carbon payments
STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE 1
MARKET-BASED INCENTIVES TO PROMOTE SMALLHOLDER-LED FOREST LANDSCAPE RESTORATION (FLR) AS A BUSINESS (RAAB) DELIVERED
The overall investment objective under SO1 is to transform the smallholder investment horizons from short to long-term ones that are characteristic of reforestation investments. The main mechanism in SO1 will be scaling out TGB. The TGB model is designed to de-risk smallholder investments to ensure long-term investments in tree growing. SO1 will support interventions that build the capacity of households, communities, and their natural capital to prevent, mitigate and cope with risk, and recover from climate induced shocks through 4 Key Result Areas:
Land Acquisition interventions from multiple landholdings for restorative investments – including voluntary recruitment under TGB and Conservation agreements. These would we accompanied by intensive baseline surveys, mapping studies, community mobilisation, and landowners’ engagement models.
Ecosystem Restoration for enhanced adaptive and mitigation capacity– including Ecosystem-Based Adaptation (EbA), Afforestation, Reforestation, Regeneration, improved forest management, and Ecosystem mitigation interventions. This will include all tree planting interventions either through agroforestry, enrichment planting, boundary planting assisted natural regeneration, and natural regeneration. This will also include wetland restoration. It will include interventions for technically specifying conservation initiatives in line with market standards as well as monitoring, verification, and reporting (MRV) systems for aggregating verifiable emission reductions (VERs). Interventions in this result area will promote the planting of mixed native tree species for enhanced biodiversity.
Conservation Investments for resilience and sustainability – including interventions focusing on designing and delivering sustainability incentive mechanisms rewarding environmental outcomes from various conservation initiatives. Renewable energy and climate smart technology interventions will also fall under this result area
Smallholder Business Case Development for sustainable Forest Management – including designing forest-based green enterprises for TGB farmer groups to sustain woodlots beyond carbon payments
Our Programmes
ECOTRUST operates across Uganda with a focus on three main landscapes: Queen Elizabeth National Park landscape and Murchison-Semliki landscape in the Albertine region of South-Western Uganda, and the Mount Elgon Landscape in Eastern Uganda. These are not only landscapes of global biodiversity significance, but they are also hot spots for climate change induced disasters – especially floods, mud slides and changing weather patterns that result in frequent and unexpected droughts and changes in rainy seasons.
FEATURED PROJECT
Trees for Global Benefits
Eradicating Poverty One Ton of CO2 at a Time!
Trees for Global Benefits (TGB) has for eighteen years been at the forefront of mobilizing Foreign Direct Investment in smallholder-led agroforestry and forest management. The scheme, pioneered in 2003 by ECOTRUST, has grown into one of the biggest smallholders agro-forestry carbon projects in Africa under the Plan Vivo standard of certification. TGB is currently contributing to the restoration of over 12,000 hectares with indigenous tree species in some of the most ecologically vital landscapes of Uganda
Our Networks
ECOTRUST has established strong customer relations and contracts with a broad range of international private sector buyers in the voluntary carbon market for the last 17 years. ECOTRUST is a member of UNFCC CSO Network and is currently leading the policy unit of the Africa CSOs Biodiversity Alliance (ACBA) under the umbrella of African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) in engagement with the Post-2020 CBD framework. ECOTRUST is currently Chair of Northern Albertine Conservation Group (NARC-G) Platform – a consortium of conservation NGOs operating in the Albertine Rift region of Uganda.ECOUTRUST is a member of the Kiiha Catchment Partnership bringing together Government of Uganda (Ministry of Water and Environment); District Local Governments of Masindi, Hoima, Kikuube, Buliisa, Kyenjonjo; and CSOs in the catchment. ECOTRUST is a member of the national Environmental and Natural Resources (ENR) CSO Coalition. ECOTRUST maintains a strong strategic relationship with all key donors.
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