The Green Livelihoods Alliance (GLA) programme ‘Forested landscapes for equity; a strong civil society for inclusive and sustainable development’ seeks to strengthen the abilities and effectiveness of Southern civil society organizations (CSOs) to influence these policies and practices to achieve the inclusive and sustainable governance of forested landscapes.

The core of the Alliance’s strategy, therefore, is:

(1)To join CSOs in lobbying for and advocating inclusive and sustainable governance of forested landscapes and

(2) To strengthen the capacity of our partner CSOs to technically, politically and economically empower and represent local communities.

The global 2016-2020 programme implemented in nine countries around the world with Uganda, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and D.R.C among participating countries in Africa. The GLA is a Strategic Partnership funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs within their “Dialogue and Dissent Programme”. The GLA has three Dutch partners, being Milieudefensie (partner of Friends of the Earth), IUCN the Netherlands and Tropenbos International (TBI). In Uganda, National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE), a Ugandan based NGO, is the GLA partner of Milieudefensie and national focus point for GLA. 

In 2017, Tropenbos International (TBI) established contacts and contracted Ecological Trends Alliance to coordinate eight studies. These researches were important to improve our understanding of the oil palm development on Kalangala and the associated socio-economic and environmental impacts, in particular on the livelihoods of people inhabiting the island. This can then thereafter, help to ensure that successful practices are replicated in Buvuma, while practices with predicted major negative impacts on Buvuma’s environment and people’s livelihoods are avoided. In 2018, TBI has awarded a one year grant to specifically implement, coordinate and disseminate indepth studies including:

1. Detailed land use maps of the Kalangala landscape, including trends and future predictions

2. Demography of and jobs in Kalangala landscape, focusing on the structure and changes in the last decade as a result of the Oil Palm project

3. Economic trajectories of palm oil development for different stakeholders in the landscape

4. An assessment of land ownership and deals with a detail assessment of land contracts, conditions, compensation and the application of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) in decision making

Ecological Trends Alliance is the partner of Tropenbos International and the contact for this Terms of Reference. Tropenbos International (TBI) applies an approach that combines (action) research and capacity building towards effective and informed dialogue related to the priorities and outcomes in Uganda.

TBI aims to apply its approach to address the complex and wicked problems in multi-actor and multi-sector landscapes. The absence of ‘simple’ technical solutions requires collaboration between stakeholders to discuss, negotiate and agree on acceptable ways forward. In such contexts, it is important to bring independent, validated knowledge into the dialogue. TBI perceives itself not only as a knowledge broker but also as 'honest' broker, who does not take position but helps stakeholders develop and evaluate alternative development scenarios to inspire and inform decision making. The underlying assumption is that “better knowledge leads to better decisions” if consequences of expected changes and alternatives are being taken into account. Together with other GLA partners, TBI will facilitate and inform multi-stakeholder dialogues and support such dialogue with underlying research. The landscape approach, a central concept in the GLA program, dealing with the interaction between forests, trees, agriculture and external drivers at a landscape scale will be used for the Kalangala landscape.