Scholarlink

<p>Agroforested landscapes frequently experience conflicts between resource managers and neighbouring local communities due to competing interests and differing priorities in land use, resource access and allocation. Policy guidelines intended to regulate forest-water resources in these landscapes often fail to achieve their objectives. In many cases, top-down environmental management and conservation approaches prove ineffective because they overlook meaningful involvement of local stakeholders in policy design and implementation. Persistent barriers also limit farmers’ adoption of sustainable agroforested landscape management practices. In Uganda, the reasons why obstacles to effective forest-water resource management remain difficult to overcome are still poorly understood. This study presents an integrated, participatory methodology combining individual interviews with farmers and key experts and a Fuzzy Cognitive Map (FCM) modelling workshop to explore forest-water policy guidelines. A multi-step FCM approach was applied to identify the underlying drivers of policy barriers in an East African water tower. In total, 34 individual cognitive maps were aggregated into a social FCM comprising 49 variables. The results indicate that institutional failures—particularly weak enforcement mechanisms and poor coordination among responsible agencies—constitute the primary challenges to implementing agroforested landscape management policies, rather than farmers’ unwillingness to comply. The FCM approach systematically identifies both conflicting perceptions and areas of shared understanding among stakeholders. These findings demonstrate that FCM is a valuable tool for revealing leverage points in policy development and can support environmental policy design and communication. Based on these insights, policy options for improving agroforested landscape management are proposed.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

Management of tree growing and agroforestry in an agroforested landscape: Institutions, policies, and stakeholders in Mt. Elgon Water Tower, Uganda

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年3月16日

查看全文
  • George Kimbowa,
  • David Mfitumukiza,
  • Saul Daniel Ddumba,
  • Denis Nseka,
  • Paul Isolo Mukwaya,
  • Frank Mugagga

摘要

Agroforested landscapes frequently experience conflicts between resource managers and neighbouring local communities due to competing interests and differing priorities in land use, resource access and allocation. Policy guidelines intended to regulate forest-water resources in these landscapes often fail to achieve their objectives. In many cases, top-down environmental management and conservation approaches prove ineffective because they overlook meaningful involvement of local stakeholders in policy design and implementation. Persistent barriers also limit farmers’ adoption of sustainable agroforested landscape management practices. In Uganda, the reasons why obstacles to effective forest-water resource management remain difficult to overcome are still poorly understood. This study presents an integrated, participatory methodology combining individual interviews with farmers and key experts and a Fuzzy Cognitive Map (FCM) modelling workshop to explore forest-water policy guidelines. A multi-step FCM approach was applied to identify the underlying drivers of policy barriers in an East African water tower. In total, 34 individual cognitive maps were aggregated into a social FCM comprising 49 variables. The results indicate that institutional failures—particularly weak enforcement mechanisms and poor coordination among responsible agencies—constitute the primary challenges to implementing agroforested landscape management policies, rather than farmers’ unwillingness to comply. The FCM approach systematically identifies both conflicting perceptions and areas of shared understanding among stakeholders. These findings demonstrate that FCM is a valuable tool for revealing leverage points in policy development and can support environmental policy design and communication. Based on these insights, policy options for improving agroforested landscape management are proposed.