Impact case study database

This project, led by Branch at the University of Cambridge, is the first instance of research being utilised to support and inform concerted community activism and policy action around a pressing environmental challenge in northern Uganda, a region where politics has been almost entirely defined by the atrocities of the 20-year civil war and its aftermath [E3]. Prompted by the research findings, local communities in the region challenged existing environmental development narratives, which focused on smallholder charcoal production, and instead directed attention to the problem of large-scale production.

Local collaboration was key to ensuring the uptake of the research within Uganda and built into the research design through close collaboration with local stakeholders. It was carried forward through multiple grants awarded to Branch.

The research team focused on three mechanisms for change. First, they provided evidence and support for a legislative process to regulate production and promote sustainable practices. Second, they helped mobilise an environmental activism campaign that generated widespread support for legislative change. Third, they assisted a local non-governmental organisation (NGO) in setting up an environmental monitoring process. These are documented in detail below. Their cumulative success is apparent from: changes in government policy, with new charcoal legislation finalised and passed by Kitgum District Government Council in December 2020 [E4]; shifts in media and public understanding, with a sustained focus on charcoal and deforestation issues emerging; changes in production practices, with a visible reduction in the impunity for illegal production and transport; and the cultivation of a more receptive political climate, as political leaders have started to denounce charcoal-driven deforestation, responding to demands for action from rural communities.

1. Provision of evidence and support for a bottom-up legislative process

Uganda’s decentralised political structure makes district level policy key to change. Because district government is responsible for natural resource management and local economic development, the research team focused their engagement at this level. Their activities resulted in new draft legislation [E5] that was passed by Kitgum District Council and is under consideration by district governments across the Acholi sub-region [E4].

A charcoal policy conference, organised by the research team in July 2018 to discuss findings, initiated the process of legislative change. It brought together local government officials, academics, environmental officers and civil society actors [E3] [E6], and led to the formation of the Acholi Technical Working Committee on Charcoal (ATWCoC), comprised of Ugandan policy-makers, environmentalists and scholars, to which Branch was an adviser.

District governments tasked ATWCoC with drafting new legislation on charcoal production [E7] [E8]. The ATWCoC chairperson explains, “ [the research] helped provide the vision behind the drafting of the charcoal ordinance” [E8]. Reflecting the research findings, the draft Ordinance introduces stringent regulation of large scale production [E5]. In early 2020, ATWCoC presented the Sustainable Charcoal Production and Marketing Ordinance to all District Councils in the sub-region for reading.

ATWCoC also prioritised public engagement to build wide support for the legislation. From 2018 to early 2020, ATWCoC met with national and local media, district lawyers, religious and cultural leaders, and security chiefs [E7, p. 3]. They held public consultations in all eight districts in the Acholi sub-region, each with more than 100 attendees, and revised the Ordinance in response. This highly consultative process resulted in strong local support for the legislative activity [E7].

A member of the ATWCoC secretariat observes that the process, and the draft legislation, was “ founded in large part [in] response to Dr Branch’s research findings and advocacy initiative” [E9] – a point that is also underlined in ATWCoC’s official reports [E7, p. 1-2]. Branch also supported consultations with local stakeholders about the draft in progress, and participated extensively in drafting and revising the Ordinance with Ugandan lawyers and government experts [E8].

In late March 2020, a national lockdown in response to COVID-19 paused progress with the legislation soon after it was introduced in the District Councils. From August, ATWCoC actively sought support for emergency District Council meetings to continue the Bill’s formal passage. These efforts were successful, with the first council tabling the bill in early November 2020 [E10] and adopting it in December 2020 [E4].

1. Mobilisation and capacity building of a locally-driven advocacy campaign

The widespread complicity of local government with illegal charcoal production meant that district-level legislation had to be accompanied by wider pressure to ensure its enforcement [R2]. Prior to the legislative process, local members of the research team co-founded an environmental pressure group Our Trees – We Need Answers [E3], based in large part on the insights generated by the research. This group has helped to keep environmental issues in the public eye and provide political oversight. One of the co-founders explains,

“[The group] was formed in response to loopholes in legal, administrative and political mechanisms in the preservation and conservation of the environment in the sub-region, many of which were first revealed by the research project.” [E9]

Branch continued to support the campaign through providing expert commentary, consulting on strategy and establishing links with environmental activists internationally [E9]. These efforts equipped Our Trees activists with knowledge of the issues and other campaigns, as they led a high-profile campaign. Their campaign pressured officials to end illegal large-scale production and helped to prepare them to implement legislation as it came into effect [E9]. By March 2020, they had participated in more than 50 radio talk shows and carried out over 30 community meetings in northern Uganda, collaborating with researchers, human rights organisations, and local print media. They convened hundreds of people in charcoal production “hotspots” to discuss the problem, propose solutions, and learn about environmental challenges through drama groups and music performances. They also contributed to media training workshops, environmental justice football matches, and cultural festivals, including the Acholi Cultural Festival [E9].

Their innovative environmental campaign made Our Trees a regular presence in the national media. They were an important, early part of an upsurge of environmental activism in the region, including Save Our Beyo [a tree species] and Friends of Zoka Forest [E9], whose leader won an EU Human Rights Defender Award in 2019. Newspaper coverage illustrates their contribution to shaping attitudes and pressuring local government to take action [E6].

1. Establishing a new local environmental rights monitoring programme

Informed by the research led by Branch, a local NGO, Human Rights Focus (Hurifo), established a new monitoring programme that has helped to hold charcoal traders and local government to account. Hurifo made environmental justice a priority after collaborating on the funded research [E1]. In 2016, they incorporated environmental rights into their strategic plan and established a new programme on environmental justice, with charcoal production identified as a core concern.

This programme involves environmental ‘sensitisation’ (building awareness about production practices’ environmental impact), monitoring and evidence building. As part of their contribution to the funded research, Hurifo, with Branch, translated research findings into a ‘fact sheet’ that was heavily used in these sensitisation efforts [E1]. The NGO built a new network of community volunteers to monitor and ensure accountability of local practices, training 71 new environmental monitors [E11]. By early 2020, Hurifo’s team had reached nearly 5,000 people.

Branch advised Hurifo about how to implement this programme and train volunteers. This support was key to building an evidence-based programme. It equipped volunteers with data collection skills, which have been essential in advocacy and monitoring activities [E1].

These sensitisation and monitoring efforts helped to change community views and behaviour. The Hurifo Executive Director states: “ Since the sharing of the findings of this first research work on environmental justice, and the transformation and commissioning of the Community Environmental Monitors and volunteers, the public perceptions and community reactions to the environmental issues and generally climatic change knowledge have changed” [E1].

Change is visible in two areas of community activity. First, there have been new community efforts to effectively challenge illegal commercial charcoal traders, through peaceful campaigning and protest [E1]. Second, there has been new community engagement in rebuilding and protecting the local environment by conserving forest and planting trees [E1].

1. A multi-faceted effort to change the commitment and action of local leaders

By supporting multiple strategies to consolidate sustainable production – encompassing legislation, campaigning, and monitoring by civil society – the research has played a critical role in re-shaping the understanding and behaviour of political leaders in northern Uganda. Top district officials responded to community pressure, fostered through well-attended community forums. This built an important link between community organisation, environmental campaigning, and the formulation of legislative proposals. For example, officials who attended forums were often subjected to intense criticism, as communities challenged local leaders and charcoal dealers after being made aware of the political dimension of the problem through Hurifo and Our Trees activism [E9]. In March 2020, Hurifo reported that rural community leaders had come together and evicted over 400 charcoal merchants in three districts (Omoro, Gulu, Pader). In addition, more than 20 charcoal trucks were impounded by district leaders, and merchants arrested and fined [E11] see also [E1] [E6, p.21].

Some local leaders publicly responded with new commitments to policy change, and, since 2018 there has been increased public demand for accountability from charcoal dealers and the officials who have protected them [E6]. One sub-county chief explained his response:

“I mobilized the community to chase away charcoal dealers who bought trees in 80 hectares of land … I also sensitized people in my chiefdom on dangers of destroying the environment through cutting trees in [sic] large scale, they understood this and made it easy for us to stop [the] charcoal business here; there are no trucks which come here for charcoal the way they used to loiter here day and night. I thank HURIFO for opening our eyes to save our environment.” [E11]

A prominent Human Rights Lawyer based in Gulu attests to the “unprecedented” [E3] nature of the changes:

“… *this awareness and spotlight brought about an increase in arrests, prosecution and impound of the illegal charcoal and forest producers. There has been a surge in activism, where everyday persons and groups are demanding accountability from leaders regarding natural resources.*” [E3]