Budongo and Bugoma Forest Reserves, Uganda

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The Budongo and Bugoma Forest Reserves are located in western Uganda at the northern extent of the Albertine Rift region, where some of the largest forest remnants in the country still exist. The 817 square kilometer Budongo Forest Reserve (FR) and the 400 square kilometer Bugoma FR are two distinct protected areas separated by approximately 50 km; the area between the two reserves is comprised mostly of agricultural mosaic and degraded forest land. Budongo's forests are perhaps best well known for its high faunal diversity and large populations of endemic chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii).

The Woods Hole Research Center's current efforts in this area involve the use of remote sensing tools and field data to establish an ecological linkage between the Budongo and Bugoma Forest Reserves. Such a connection would not only serve as a wildlife corridor between these two protected areas, but would also enhance the long-term ecological viability of these two remaining forests; despite continued anthropogenic destruction and degradation, are some of the largest remaining forest remnants in Uganda.

The boundaries of Budongo and Bugoma Forest Reserves displayed over a mosaic of

Aster and Landsat images collected between 2000 and 2006.

 

Natural Environment

The Budongo and Bugoma Forest Reserves are remanats of the once extensive equatorial rainforest systems that stretched throughout tropical Africa. These forests support a diversiyt of vegetation types, including the largest population of mahoganies in East Africa, early successional forests, mixed forests, Cynometra forests, swamp forests, shrubland, and grassland. Slightly more than half of Budongo's area is comprised of forest with the remainder in grassland; grasslands comprise less than 20% of the total area of Bugoma Forest Reserve.

In addition to the over 465 species of trees and shrubs, the forests are also home to 366 species of birds and 289 species of butterflies; Budonga Forest Reserve is also home to what is probably the largest population of wild chimpanzees in Uganda. Large-scale, organized research on this population of chimpanzees was begun in the 1960s and continues today, with several research organizations taking part in long-term monitoring and study of faunal populations and their interactions with their native environments.

Investigation of forest ecology and forest use began in Budonga in the late eighteenth century; these forests are home to some of the oldest permanent sampling plots in the world. Due to the long-standing focus on the multiple values of forested landscapes in this area, Budongo is currently the largest remaining forest complex in Uganda. Bugoma, however, has been a soruce of commercial timber since the 1940s. Decades of logging in this area have drastically altered the species and community composition of forests; over 30% of Bugoma's forests are still regenerating from past harvests.

The region containing these two forest reserves is characterized by relatively high rainfall averaging from 1,200 to 1,800 mm/year, an average temperature of 25° C, and fertile soils. The favorable climate, the region's proximity to freshwater resources (Lake Albert to the west and the Victoria Nile River to the south), and the diversity of habitat types represented have resulted in an incredibly rich landscape that is still home to some of the largest surviving populations of birds, primates, elephants, and other large mammals in the wild.

 

Land Use

Like most regions in Uganda, land use in the area surrounding the Bugoma and Budongo Forest Reserves is dominated by agriculture, with over 70% of the local population engaged in small-scale subsistence farming. In addition to smallholder agricultural activities, the region also supports commercial-scale production of maize, tobacco, coffee, sugarcane, and cotton. In the areas surrouding Lake Albert, fishing is also an important economic activity. Fortunately, the Ugandan government recognized relatively early the value of setting aside land for uses other than agriculture. The Budongo FR has long been the site of ecological research and conservation activities; currently, slightly less than half of the total land area of the surrounding Masindi District is under some type of protection.

The peoples inhabiting the region containing the Budongo and Bugoma FRs are comprised of over 50 different tribes, although 60% of the population is a member of either the Banyoro or Bagungo tribe. Almost every tribe present in Uganda is represented in this region, in addition to groups from Rwanda, Kenya, Burundi, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo that have settled permanently in western Uganda. Despite the rich diversity of peoples and cultures in this area, the population density is relatively low--55 to 50 person per square kilometer as compared to the regional average of 129 persons per square kilometer.

Historically, landscape management practices in this area relied heavily on fire to maintain open savannahs and clearings within protected forest tracts. Over the course of many decades, repeated buring kept the dense forest vegetation of the region at bay and allowed colonization by large, savannah-dwelling mammals. In the last decades, however, park managers have drastically reduced the use of fire as a management tool, resulting in a rapid reclamation of open grasslands by the dense forests native to the region.

These two photographs show the same location; the photo on the left is from 1974, when fire was used extensively to maintain open areas, while the photo on the left was taken in 2002 after burning in this area was suspended.

 

Conservation Threats

Although there are currently thousands of hectares of protected area in this region, logging, both legal and illegal; poaching of protected species; and illegal use of forest resources threaten the integrity of the Budongo and Bugoma forest ecosystems. Deforests of the landscape to accomodate increased agricultural production has resulted in the creation of isolated forest islands; these areas are increasingly surrounded by a degraded and unsustainable mosaic of cultivated and abandoned fields. Additionally, a relatively recent trend towards larger-scale farming has resulted in more rapid deforestation in areas favorable for agriculture and the use of more marginal (and therefore more easily and rapidly degraded) lands by smallholders.

Harvesting of the region's economically valuable timber species, including mahogany and ironwood, has severely degraded the ecological integrity of forest habitat in both the Bugoma and Budongo forests. Of the two protected areas, the Budongo forest has a higher concentration of these desirable timber species and has therfore suffered greater detrimental effects of harvesting; in some parts of the forest no large mahogany trees remain. Timber straction firest began in this region in the 1920s; in face, the Budongo FR was originally Uganda's firest commercial logging concession. Over the next half-century, foreign-owned sawmilling firms were given exclusive 10-year felling licenses. Some areas of the FR were declared off-lmiits to logging--these areas now contain the vast majority of the remaining intact floral and faunal populations.

Logging operations in the Bugoma FR continue today with the felling of trees for a variety of industrial uses. While foreign companies still drive much of the timber market, local pitsawers also contribute to the removal of timber both within and outside permitted concessions. Logging wtihin the forest reserves is harmful to animal populations not only because it removes essential habitat and disrupts ecosystem function, but because it creates pathways into dense, previously undistrubed forest for hunters and poachers. Illegal hunting of endangered and protected species for bushmeat comprises the main threat to the continued viability of large mammals remaining within these forest reserves; elephant and buffalo populations have been severely diminished over the last several decades.

 

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