The mission of Environmental Defenders (ED) is to protect the natural environment and the people and wildlife that depend upon it, helping marginalized indigenous communities make a sustainable living, and protect their water sources and the local environment. This is done through trees planting, restoration of degraded land and watersheds, livelihood support and community capacity building, seed banking and propagation, protection and accompaniments of conservation activists, tree nursery production as well as environmental awareness and education at local level. The organisation works with local government agencies, farmers’ groups, private land owners, community-based groups, smallholders, fisher communities and local farmers to implement its various conservation and livelihoods programs on trees planting, village loan and saving, environmental awareness, women empowerment and defense of environmental activists in Lake Albert region in Uganda.

In February 2022, ED started an Agriculture, Livelihoods, and Conservation Baseline Survey with the main objective of understanding and documenting the prevailing conditions of communities living adjacent to Luli Kayonga Forest Reserve and those living at the shore of the Dei Landing site in Pakwach district. Environmental Defenders will use the study’s findings to develop and carry out initiatives and programmes that safeguard forests and the Lake Albert Biodiversity and improve livelihoods in the study areas where smallholder agriculture is linked to the loss of forests and biodiversity.

The Baseline study was implemented through a mixed methods approach in which both quantitative and qualitative data were collected to investigate the various themes as elaborated in the study objectives. For the quantitative data collection, a mini-survey involving 100 respondents was carried out. The respondents were divided into three groups according to the three beneficiary groups of ED’s current work in the community, that is, forestry (30 participants), Fisheries (30 participants) and Agriculture (60 participants). A household survey tool was developed, shared with ED, and then finalized and used to collect quantitative data through a mobile-based data collection application. The qualitative data was EXECUTIVE SUMMARY collected through targeted focus group discussions with men and women in Got Rau Parish and Hoima Parish that represented the 3 categories of beneficiaries of ED’s work. Noteworthy, is that all respondents were participants in ED’s work. A limited number of key informants was also engaged in order to provide appropriate triangulation of the information being gathered. Last, but not least, an extensive literature review was undertaken of national, district, sub county as well global level relevant literature pertaining to the subjects of forestry environmental conservation, fisheries management and agricultural production. A first draft report was prepared and submitted to ED to make input. After ED’s input, a validation workshop with selected stakeholders in Dei sub county was conducted. This is the final report after integration of all stakeholders’ input into the study findings, conclusions and recommendations.

In utilizing the findings of this study some limitations are worth keeping in mind. The small numbers of forestry and fisheries respondents presented a challenge in data analysis. However, limitations of resources resulted in such small number targeting. Secondly, the respondents were all beneficiaries of ED’s work in the community. Hence, high levels of certain indicators do not mean that the community in Dei is necessarily at that high level of knowledge or practice of any program indicator.

The findings are presented as per the Baseline Study objectives in brief. More detailed information is found in the body and conclusions/recommendations sections.