Uganda Farm Radio, Radio and interactive communications technologies to promote forest landscape restoration

In 2014 and 2015, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) collaborated with Farm Radio International (FRI) on a project – Radio and ICT to Promote Forest Landscape Restoration – with the aim of promoting Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) for landholders/farmers in Uganda. Between September 2014 and June 2015, IUCN’s goal was to use radio as well as other information and communication technologies (ICT) to reach a wide audience of farmers to increase knowledge and awareness of FLR. The aim was to enable farmers and farming communities to undertake and promote specific FLR interventions for their own needs and to understand the benefits, opportunities and challenges they might face in
restoring degraded land.

Results
The overall results of the project are positive and encouraging: GIS mapping 1and population analysis indicates that a large percentage of the total target population of the IUCN project, roughly 200,000 people in the Districts of Kapchorwa and Kween, had access to the forest landscape renewal program series as well as an additional 800,000 people in adjacent districts. An outcome evaluation of the project revealed that 91% of listeners had used one of the techniques mentioned in the radio program during the previous five months. Specific outcomes are presented and analysed in the paper: There is no Program Without Farmers: Interactive Radio for Forest Landscape Restoration in the Districts of Kapchorwa and Kween, Mt. Elgon Region, Uganda.