In partnership with IUCN Committee of The Netherlands, ECOTRUST has embarked on a process of developing a detailed plan for re-establishing critical linkages within the Northern Albertine Rift Forest Corridor.  This follows recommendations for boosting the establishment of the corridor generated through a multi-stakeholder process initiated in 2019.

This corridor boosting project is jointly coordinated by ECOTRUST and IUCN NL under the Shared Resources Joint Solutions programme (SRJS). The SRJS program, (among several objectives) aims to create a vital wildlife corridor between Bugoma and Budongo forest reserves.  In addition to biodiversity conservation, re-establishing and restoring biodiversity corridors (woodland, forest, and wetlands) also improves water security for local livelihoods and supports climate resilience. Thousands of smallholder farmers depend on the interconnectivity between the natural and productive systems for their basic needs of water, food, fiber, medicine and raw materials.

The process has started with a study to examine in detail two of the critical linkages in the southern part of the corridor i.e. the linkage between Bugoma Forest Reserve and Wambabya Forest Reserve, and the linkage between Wambabya FR and Bugambe Tea estate. The current study focuses on a small part of the corridor and seeks to develop concrete plans to create and manage a corridor on the ground and successfully demonstrate solutions for creating and protecting forest corridors across the landscape. These successful solutions will act as pilots and case studies to scale efforts to realize a full corridor across the region.