User:Bwindiamagara

Bwindi Advanced Market Gardeners’ Association - Bwindi AMAGARA 

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP) in Uganda is globally famous as home to half of the world population of critically endangered mountain gorillas, which attract thousands of visitors to the forest every year. In theory, this tourism should bring benefits for both conservation and local communities, helping to resolve conflict between people and the park. However, in practice, the majority of revenue used to‘leak’ out of the area, leaving local people with little to show for the tourism taking place in their midst. One important reason for this high rate of leakage is that most perishable food products used by the tour camps were not locally sourced. Instead, despite the fertility of the land around Bwindi, the great majority of foods were purchased in major towns many hours drive from the forest. Meanwhile, subsistence farmers living close to the park boundary were using damaging agricultural practices which degraded the environment, and living in conflict with the National Park because its existence deprived them of access to traditional income generating activities. This situation threatened the future wellbeing of both the park and the surrounding human population.

In 2006 Bwindi Advanced Market Gardeners’ Association was established (AMAGARA meaning ‘life’ in the local language Rukiga). AMAGARA aims to help local farmers to produce and market foods for the tourism industry while training them in farming techniques that minimise damage to the environment and forest and maximise the nutritional value of meals they provide for their families.

Bwindi AMAGARA aims to achieve this goal by acting as a bridge between farmers and the tourism industry by marketing AMAGARA products to local tour lodges while training members in target crop production and natural resource management and helping them to increase the yield of their produce. AMAGARA has seen cooperative members receive a much needed boost to their household income as well as increased family nutrition. This link between increased household income and tourism has also given the farmers a powerful incentive to conserve forest resources.

Bwindi AMAGARA also offers visitors to the park the opportunity to take a tour of the demonstation garden and find out more about where the food they are eating comes from and how the association operates. While at the garden visitors can learn how to cook traditional Ugandan dishes using fresh produce from the garden.

www.ruffordsmallgrants.org/rsg/projects/chris_sandbrook