PEOPLE AND PLANTS WORKING4 PAPER - DECEMBER 1996 This series of working papers is intended to provide information and to generate fruitful discussion People, park and plant use on key issues Recommendations for multiple-use zones and develop- in the sustainable ment alternatives around Bwindi Impenetrable National and equitable use Park, Uganda of plant resources. Please A.B. Cunningham send comments on this paper and suggestions for future issues to People and Plants Initiative, Division of Ecological Sciences, UNESCO, 7 Place de Fontenoy, The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city, or area of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The opinions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors and do not commit any Organization. This publication is based on a report prepared in 1992 for CARE-DTC. CARE's Development Through Conservation (DTC) project, initiated in 1988 under an agreement between USAID, WWF and CARE, has supported environmental conservation in south-west Uganda with particular focus on the two national parks, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park and the adjacent com- munities. DTC has supported Uganda Wildlife Authority in setting up the innovative multiple-use progamme in which communities harvest non-timber forest products from the two parks. The People and Plants Initiative of WWF, UNESCO, and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, has supported CARE- DTC's work through sponsorship, research and information gathering, ethnobotany training, and pub- lication of the project's experience in implementing multiple use. Author’s address: A.B. Cunningham P.O. Box 42 Betty’s Bay 7141 SOUTH AFRICA Photos: All photos by A.B. Cunningham, except for cover photos 2 and 3 and photos 4 and 5 by R. Höft Cover illustration: Contours of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park overlaid on (1) Granary con- structed from Loeseneriella apocynoides (omujega) near Bwindi; (2) Women carrying Cyperus lati- folius (ekigaga) bundles used for weaving mats; (3) Smilax anceps (enshuli) used for granaries and stretchers. Published in 1996 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization 7, place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris Cedex 07 SP, FRANCE Printed in France by EGOPRIM on chlorine-free recycled paper Edited by Martin Walters and Robert Höft Design: Ivette Fabbri Layout: Martina Höft © UNESCO / A.B. Cunningham 1996 SC-97/WS/48 Recommended citation: Cunningham, A.B. 1996. People, park and plant use. Recommendations for multiple-use zones and development alternatives around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda. People and Plants working paper 4. UNESCO, Paris. This publication is also available in French. People, park and plant use RECOMMENDATIONS FOR MULTIPLE-USE ZONES AND DEVELOPMENT ALTERNATIVES AROUND BWINDI IMPENETRABLE NATIONAL PARK, UGANDA Abstract In the large forested areas of the Zaïre and wood or other wooden products), and minor Amazon basins human densities are low, and dis- forest products (all non-wooden products). The turbance by "forest peoples" creates rather than results and recommendations of this report are reduces diversity, forming a mosaic of vegetation presented first for the latter category, involving types at different stages of recovery after distur- mainly specialist users of non-wood products, bance. including wild plant resources, honey, basketry Afromontane forests are at the opposite and bamboo use. The various uses of wood, the extreme. Situated in one of the most densely pop- major forest products, (e.g. blacksmiths, carved ulated areas of Uganda, the remaining forests wooden handcrafts, beer boats, building poles, formerly occupied by the Batwa have become the bean stakes) are then considered. focus for harvesting of plant resources by the These recommendations need to be seen as farmers who cleared them. They have also part of an ongoing process of interaction between become the subject of national and international the rural community surrounding Bwindi conservation efforts. Impenetrable National Park and the park man- Afromontane forests in western Uganda, and agement, with DTC (Development Through Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in particular, are Conservation) project staff at the interface now fragmented islands, surrounded by rural between the two groups. farmlands. Under these circumstances, sustain- Specialist user groups within rural communi- able forest management differs greatly from the ties surrounding Bwindi Impenetrable National use of low species diversity, highly productive Park, having a good knowledge of plant reedbeds or thatch-grassland, where harvesting is resources, can form an important interface seasonal, obvious and easy to manage. Recovery between the National Park or DTC staff and the from harvesting in productive annual systems is rural community in general. They also represent also short, due to annual production of above- groups of resource users with a common interest ground biomass. Instead of the short rotation in beekeeping, traditional medicines, basketry or applied in reed cutting, sustainable harvesting of other uses. All of these are recognized for their forest for timber is usually aimed at rotation skills within communities and by the Resistance times of 50-200 years. Council (RC) system. Many are already mem- In Bwindi Forest, the effects of pitsawing and bers of organizations established either on com- agricultural clearing in the past are superimposed munity initiative or through the combined inter- on differences in vegetation caused by topography ests of the community and Ugandan government and soil type. This results in patchy distribution departments. both of species and size class categories of the trees Key species to specialist users are Faurea or shrubs used for bellows, building poles, beer saligna (omulengere) and Sericostachys scan- boats or bean stakes. It also influences the avail- dens (omuna) for hives and honey; Rytigynia ability of these resources, either increasing the kigeziensis (nyakibazi) to treat internal parasites; number of young saplings (bean stakes, building Loeseneriella apocynoides (omujega) and Smilax poles) or colonizing species (e.g. Polyscias fulva anceps (enshuli) for basketry, bamboo for build- (omungo)) in disturbed sites. It has also ing and granaries and Rapanea melanophloeos decreased stocks of large hardwoods, due to (omukone) for carved sticks. The use of edible overexploitation and competing uses for timber plants is generally limited to famine periods, (e.g. Prunus africana (omumba) and Newtonia with Myrianthus holstii (omufe) fruits and buchananii (omutoyo)), despite the "reserved" Dioscorea (ebikwa) tubers most favoured. status of hardwoods. Three size classes of woody plants are This report focuses on resource use and man- favoured for beer boats (>50 cm dbh), building agement issues relating to wild plants and multi- material (5-15 cm dbh) or bean poles (1.5-5 cm ple-use zoning in Bwindi Impenetrable National dbh). These size classes represent successive Park. Foresters usually group products into two stages of trees forming the forest: canopy, sub- categories for forest management purposes: canopy and understorey. Straight hardwoods are major forest products (such as timber, fuel- selected for their durability for building (e.g. PEOPLE AND PLANTS WORKING PAPER 4, DECEMBER 1996 1 People, park and plant use A.B. CUNNINGHAM Drypetes (omushabarara) species) and beer land-use conflict and putting off the real solu- boats (e.g. Newtonia buchananii (omutoyo)), tions to the problem. At present, this is con- although less durable Ficus species (ekyitoma) sidered to be the case for some wood uses (beer are also used as they are easier to carve. boats, bean stakes and building poles) due to the Bean stakes are selected on the basis of size combination of past impacts, high demand and and abundance rather than species. Alchornea limited staff for complex management. hirtella (ekizogwa) is favoured, however, as it Cultivation of trees is widely practised in the readily produces a high density of thin stems. If DTC area already. In a recent survey conducted saplings of canopy species fit into this size class in this area, for example, Eucalyptus (88% of 120 then they are also cut. These species are not only a respondents) and Acacia mearnsii (49%) were useful resource to local people, they also represent the species most preferred for building and had the forest canopy of the next century. respectively been planted by 77% and 36% of Recommendations for forest product use by respondents. From field observation, it is clear specialist groups within multiple-use areas fall that many homes in the DTC area are built from into four categories: these cultivated tree species (particularly (1) open access to specialist users (e.g. bee- Eucalyptus), with the use of exotic species keepers, non-commercial harvesting of increasing with distance away from the forest. It medicinal plants); is recommended that self-sufficiency in these (2) seasonal access to popular plant resources categories of wood use is facilitated through with limited distribution by harvesters development of nurseries and by the supply of elected within user groups (e.g. Marantaceae seedlings to interested growers. used for basketry); Cultivation efforts could also involve produc- (3) seasonal and