Budongo Forest Project
The Budongo Forest Project, established in 1990 by chimpanzee specialist Vernon Reynolds, is dedicated to the sustainable management and research of the Budongo Forest Reserve in Uganda. Spanning over 352 square kilometers, this biologically rich forest is home to a diverse array of wildlife, including more than 360 bird species, 24 mammal species, and 465 plant species. The project initially focused on chimpanzee conservation but has since expanded to encompass a broader spectrum of ecological research. Recognized as an official NGO in 2007, it operates under the name Budongo Conservation Field Station, receiving substantial support from organizations such as the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland and the Oakland Zoo.
Efforts are being made to mitigate human impacts, such as logging and unsustainable harvesting, by promoting alternative livelihoods for local communities, including sustainable farming and beekeeping practices. The Budongo Forest also plays a critical role in addressing climate change, sequestering an estimated 726,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually. Despite its significance, the project faces funding challenges, particularly in light of Uganda's limited prioritization of biodiversity initiatives. Collaborations with organizations like the Jane Goodall Institute have led to community-driven tree planting projects aimed at enhancing biodiversity and combating climate change.
Budongo Forest Project
- DATE: Established 1990
Mission
The Budongo Forest Project was founded in 1990 by chimpanzee specialist Vernon Reynolds in the Budongo Forest of Uganda, East Africa. Its mission is to blend “research and to ensure sustainable management and utilisation of the Budongo Forest Reserve as a model for tropical management.” Originally created to preserve the forest with the aim of protecting the native chimpanzees that inhabit it, the project has increased the scope of its research to include other species. The Budongo Forest, at more than 352 square kilometers, is home to over 360 bird species, 24 mammal species, 465 plant species, and 420 types of butterflies and moths. The project has built accommodations for staff and for visiting researchers and students from around the world, and dozens of articles based on research at Budongo have been published in scientific journals.
In 2007, the project was recognized by the Ugandan government as an official nongovernmental organization and was renamed the Budongo Conservation Field Station. The station receives much of its funding from the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, the Oakland Zoo in California, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland operates a large primate enclosure named the Budongo Trail.
The Budongo Forest was used by loggers for six decades, and the governmental forestry service had maintained records and maps going back almost a century. These records have proven to be invaluable to scientists studying how tropical forests grow and how they respond to being harvested. With this information and with new research, the project hopes to protect against from hunting, logging, gathering, clearing for farming, and other human interference, including global warming. For example, one conservation effort encourages local inhabitants to grow the medicinal plant Ocimum kilimandscharicum, used for aromatherapy, in sustainable community farms, rather than gathering the plant in the wild. Other projects encourage beekeeping and other ways of earning a living without cutting down trees. While logging and gathering of seeds and other nontimber products is legal in the Budongo Forest, the project explores sustainable ways to manage these harvests.
Significance for Climate Change
While the connection between tropical rainforests and global warming has never been an emphasis of the Budongo Forest Project, the world’s attention to global warming has presented the project with a larger audience and potentially with a larger base of support. Tropical rain forests, in addition to providing habitat for a rich variety of plant and animal species, protect the Earth from some of the effects of global warming by acting as carbon sinks, absorbing carbon from the atmosphere. It has been estimated that the Budongo Forest sequesters more than 726,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide each year. As tropical forests shrink, their capacity to absorb carbon also decreases, increasing the threat of global warming.
Researchers at Budongo have initiated projects to help local people grow and make a living from sustainable tree crops. These projects are described in scientific articles whose titles include “Effectiveness of Forest Management Techniques in Budongo,” “The Ecology of Long-Term Change in Logged and Non-logged Tropical Moist Forest,” and “Understanding of National and Local Laws Among Villagers with Special Reference to Hunting.” Unfortunately, these projects have had difficulty obtaining funding; although Uganda is a signatory to international conservation treaties, it has not given funding priority to efforts to preserve biodiversity, and the field station itself has only a small budget. In 2007, Uganda and its neighbors proposed that the carbon sequestered by natural forests should be included in the global carbon credit system created by the Kyoto Protocol, thus generating funds for conservation in forested nations. The resolution did not pass. Uganda signed the Paris Climate Accord in 2016.
The success of conservation work at Budongo has led to another major effort in Uganda, the planting of trees. By 2023, 170 community members had planted about 755,000 tree seedlings of various species in ten parishes within the Budongo Bugoma Center. The organization One Tree Planted worked with the Jane Goodall Institute to plant the trees to improve biodiversity in the Budongo Forest.
Bibliography
Clawson, Gabrielle. "Restoring Uganda with the Jane Goodall Institute." One Tree Planted, 2 Nov. 2023, onetreeplanted.org/blogs/stories/restoring-uganda. Accessed 20 Dec. 2024.
Howard, P. C. Nature Conservation in Uganda’s Tropical Forest Reserves. Gland, Switzerland: International Union for Conservation of Nature, 1991.
Malhi, Yadvinder, and Oliver Phillips. Tropical Forests and Global Atmospheric Change. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Reynolds, Vernon. The Chimpanzees of the Budongo Forest: Ecology, Behaviour, and Conservation. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Weber, William, et al., eds. African Rain Forest Ecology and Conservation: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2001.