Posted on August, 02 2024

The surroundings are dramatic. There are steep hills up and down, craters formed during earlier volcanic eruptions alongside flat savannas, with hordes of elephants and hippos. The hills are covered by trees and houses. 

For a long time, there was conflict about the nature and resources in the area, between the National Forest Authority (NFA), which wanted to protect the Kalinzu Central Forest Reserve under their mandated authority, and the local people, who depend on nature for their livelihoods. The trees that were cut down in the protected areas were used as timber but also for firewood by households, and hunting for bushmeat was a way of getting meat.



"We were dependent on the forest for our survival", says Zinori Bikorwomuhangi, the chairperson of Ndangara and Nyakiyanja Tutungukye Parishes Group (NNTG), the purpose of which is to empower communities for conservation and development.

This is when the Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) programme, with the support of WWF, came into the picture.  

Zinori Bikorwomuhangi sits in a small house just next to a bumpy dirt road that runs through the village of Kabukwire, which is situated on the top of a hill outside Rubirizi, in western Uganda. The road is muddy, and parts are flushed away by the previous rainfall. On one of the hillsides, the Queen Elizabeth National Park spreads out all the way to the border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). 

Since he was a young teen, Bikorwomuhangi has been cutting down trees illegally, mostly inside the park, living a life that he describes as “in no way easy”. 

"We men did not sleep in the houses. We were too afraid to get caught. We used to sleep outside, either in the forest or in the park." 



If an unknown car came into the area, everyone ran away to hide. No one felt safe – not the kids, nor the women who were also part of illegal activities, which often involved the whole community. When the men were hunting and harvesting the forest, women and children sold  illegal goods. 

Lillian Namirimu, finance chairman of NNTG, sits next to Bikorwomuhangi. 

"Sometimes I used to walk, sometimes I went on a motorcycle. I had the bushmeat in my handbag. It was mostly hippo or buffalo", says Lillian Namirimu, finance chairman of NNTG. 

It was a cat and mouse game between the locals and the government. One got caught or killed, and then the locals tried to bail him out. 

And that was the actual foundation for the conservation group. 

The main reason they started the group was to help each other when they got caught by the authorities, to collectively bail each other out from custody after getting caught. 

"The officials did not know what to do when it just went on. But they knew it could not continue, so they decided to harmonize", says Bikorwomuhangi.  

In 2012, an agreement was made between the local group and NFA, and in 2013 WWF Uganda came in as a supporting partner - NNTG was born. 

“We don’t have enough manpower to keep monitoring the forest day by day. The community are the ones that live there. These are the people that are used to getting their livelihoods from the forest. If you stop them from accessing the forest, you must allow them to be part of the management”, says Murungi Ritah, District Forestry Officer for Rubirizi District and Coordinator for the Kalinzu hub network of civil society organizations, funded by WWF. 

At the start, there were 18 members in NNTG. Now there are 415. 



Lillian Namirimu joined after her husband got caught poaching. 

"After that, we had to sell all the land we had. Then we had to rent a house. We had nothing. I joined the group to get help. But when I was in the group, I heard that there was land we could have for restoration purposes. Now we have bought our own land again", says Lillian Namirimu. 

"Before, we thought that we had to poach and cut down trees to survive. Now, we know that we can do things outside the forest", says Bikorwomuhangi. 

Apart from planting trees and restoring the forest, the support from WWF’s FLR in Africa programme includes beekeeping. 

All around the area there are beehives. The honey is packed and sold locally, and the benefits go back to the community. Another alternative income is coffee plantations, with native spices.



FLR allows the local communities themselves to take care of the forest, and by doing that, earn their own living and create alternative livelihoods from nature that does not harm it.

In a cage next to a small house, a small rabbit is sitting and chewing on a leaf. The rabbits belong to Beatrice Namara, who breeds them to sell to the community for food. As bushmeat is something many people in the area are used to, they wanted to find a sustainable alternative. Since rabbits grow and reproduce very fast, they were a good option. At the same time, it provides a good alternative income for Namara, who used to sell bushmeat.

“It’s a big achievement that we have included the community. And we have both the youth and women involved”, says Murungi Ritah.



Today, the local community is at peace with the local government, and both the community and nature are developing in harmony. Bikorwomuhangi and Ritahare are both keen to protect and save the forest for future generations. Bikorwomuhangi has decided to plant more trees than he has cut down in his life.

In Uganda, WWF’s FLR in Africa programme has committed to bringing 1.25 million hectares of degraded land and deforested forest landscapes under restoration by 2027 in a way that promotes sustainable livelihoods of the local people. The evolution of the community and government in Rubirizi is a testament that it can happen. 

Author: Troy Enekvist, WWF