Community involvement on conservation of natural resources in Uganda. A case study of Mabira forest buikwe district.

ABSTRACT 

The study on community involvement and conservation of natural resources was conducted in Mabira forest specifically to establish the role played by the community in conservation of natural resources, factors which impend community involvement in conservation, challenges to conservation and solutions for proper conservation. The study involved secondary sources of data where the research related her study to different author’s work and authentication and afterwards she made conclusions. The study used a survey design to get an estimation of the respondents’ views in regard to the objectives of the study. The target population was government officials, NGOs, local people and local leaders. The study therefore used a sample of 200 respondents from a target population of 1000 through use of Slovene’s formula. It employed a probability sampling technique to avoid bias in data presentation. Due to limited time the researcher based her presentation of finding on results from questionnaires (respondent’s fill~in what they knew about the topic in regard with the formulated questions. The study findings depicted that 90 respondents as a way of protection of the environment report illegal users. About 120 respondents were of the view that poor altitude towards conservation impends conservation, 120 respondents argued that poverty is the key factor to degradation yet 90 respondents argued that low appreciation of conservation from communities affects conservation hence 65 proposed for Increased funding to help in enviromriental protection. The study concluded that there is need for the government to sensitize local people about the benefits of environmental protection and local people should welcome all the activities brought up for conservation of natural resources for their equal benefit.