Enhancing Women’s Economic Livelihoods and Biodiversity Conservation within the Protected Areas of Kidepo Critical Landscape (Kcl) for Sustainable Development in Karamoja Region - Uganda

Climate change has become a fundamental threat to food security, sustainable development, and poverty eradication globally (FAO, 2010). The African continent is already faced with the challenges of the negative effects of climate change (Lukamba, 2010). East African countries are already grappling with these problems and Uganda is already experiencing an increase in temperatures, and extreme climatic events, that have significant implications on water resources, food security, natural resource management, human health, settlements, and infrastructures. Particularly, semi-arid and arid areas like the Karamoja region, have been hit with droughts that have left the area without food for the population, or grazing pastures for the nomadic population. Karamoja region has been faced with many challenges besides the effects of climate change. For decades, the area has been in armed conflicts, both within, between the different ethnic tribes, and outside, with neighboring pastoralists from Kenya and Sudan, who raid their cattle. All these have left the region with food security threats, so that, for decades, they have depended on food aid from World Food Programme (WFP) (Burns, Bekele, & Akabwai, 2013; Onyango, 2010; SAFERWORLD, 2010). This project proposal will aim at enhancing the livelihoods of women living within the Kidepo Critical Landscape, through sustainable use of biodiversity and alternative livelihoods options. The project will focus on awareness creation among the community, and capacity building of local government officials on gender and climate change; reinforce the interface between the communities and government bodies like Uganda Wildlife authority (UWA) and National Forest Authority (NFA) and women’s economic empowerment. The main activities will be awareness campaigns in the community through community dialogues, and radio talk shows. Local government officials will be trained to spearhead these campaigns. In order to reinforce the interface between community and UWA/NFA, there will be constant dialogues on how to use the forest and park resources by the community while conserving the biodiversity for sustainable development. There will be training in entrepreneurship skills, and different projects will be implemented like beekeeping, mushroom growing, small scale businesses, home gardening and growing of improved drought resistant food crops and handicrafts.