Conservation and Tourism Uganda

A Uganda in which conservation and tourism yield meaningful benefits to people’s livelihoods and environment

Our Objective

The overall objective of Conservation and Tourism Uganda (CTU) is to promote conservation and tourism for livelihoods and environment wellbeing in Uganda.

Our Function

1) Identify, develop and promote talent, projects and activities on and related to conservation and nature-culture based tourism among the youth, women, people with disabilities, marginalized groups, indigenous communities, and all people in Uganda for, socioeconomic wellbeing of the people and environment conservation.

2) Generate, document and disseminate lessons, experiences and knowledge on conservation and tourism so as to influence the relevant policies and practice in Uganda and internationally.

3) Become a member or cooperate with or join with any bodies, associations, foundations, organisations, societies anywhere whose objectives and activities are similar, related and or complement CTU objectives and activities.

4) Receive, keep, spend, invest or dispose money and property subscribed, bequeathed or assigned to the CTU towards the achievement of her objectives in a way making sure no part is distributed among the staff and members of CTU and, acquire and sell property (land, buildings, offices, estates, loans and any other Assets) towards the achievement of CTU objectives.

5) Do anything which in the opinion of the management of CTU is necessary, incidental or conducive to the achievement of CTU objectives.

Our Core Values

CTU’s core values guide the organization’s activities and inform its decision making processes and operational activities, and therefore shape the intervention strategies that the organization pursues. CTU’s core values are:

Professionalism

At all times, CTU management and team pay strict adherence to courtesy, honesty and responsibility during our work. This is exercised through making the right decisions at the right time, and to treat our communities as valued partners in order to guarantee quality in our interventions.

Transparency Conservation and Tourism Uganda ensures that it undertakes all its work with utmost openness and that the public knows how and why they carry out their activities in a particular manner. CTU ensures information sharing with stakeholders, government and key players in the Conservation and Tourism sector.

Participation At all times, CTU seeks to involve local communities, policy makers and stakeholders in its activities through participatory approaches to decision making and action at all levels in the organization, networks and partnerships. The organization’s promotion of participation is designed to minimize the power inequalities in human relations that create and sustain natural resources depletion and sustain poverty.

Accountability CTU and all persons conducting any activities on behalf of the organization act with strict adherence to openness and responsibility. CTU is desirous of exhibiting institutional accountability approach, leading to the setting of best standards in corporate responsibility in the non-profit sector. CTU opens itself up to scrutiny and takes responsibility for acts of omission and commission. CTU is accountable for funds and resources in its possession to stakeholders and strives to uphold accountability across all levels.

Non-partisanship In appreciation of the criticality of politics to the progression of any community, CTU’s research and advocacy program addresses crucial civil issues of power, accountable leadership, and management transparency in a non-partisan manner. To realize this, CTU does not identify with any political party or principles.

Founded in 2014, Conservation and Tourism Uganda (CTU) is a registered Not-for-profit nongovernmental organization (REG No S.5914/11432), with its Headquarters located in Kampala, Uganda.

Conservation and Tourism Uganda exists to; Identify, develop and promote talent, projects and activities on and related to conservation, Livelihoods and nature-culture based tourism among the youth, women, people with disabilities, marginalized groups, indigenous communities, and all people in Uganda for, socioeconomic wellbeing of the people and environment and tourism conservation.

Our areas of focus include:

Environment

Uganda is projected to lose its entire forest cover by 2050 unless the trend of deforestation is arrested and degraded landscapes restored. Most of the forests are destroyed for agriculture, charcoal burning and settlement and in addition, over 90% of the households use wood fuel for cooking.

Based on this trend, CTU under the environment program works with communities to promote projects that aim to tackle deforestation in Uganda, Improve health of women and children, empower and build capacity on environment based practices through;

Training communities on Tree nursery bed establishment and management

Tree planting with communities both on-farm and protected and also Key Biodiversity Areas

Promote conservation education among communities including in schools and other institutions

Engage communities in forest and wetlands conservation and restoration

Carryout relevant research activities

Promote clean and energy saving technologies for better health.

Start and build up partnerships for conservation

Initiate, identify and develop tourism related activities

Culture

Uganda has 65 indigenous communities (The Constitution of Uganda- Schedule 3) representing Uganda’s diverse cultural heritage. As a result, Uganda is a home to many tribes that speak different languages. The diversity contributes to a wealth of indigenous knowledge, languages, folklore, customs and traditions and products that can be harnessed for development. CTU’s work under this program aims to;

· Identify and document the different cultures and practices

· Development of cultural establishments to promote tourism and incomes

· Promote cultural exchange, research and

· Documentation such as recording traditional cultural expressions,

· Promote cultural tourism,

· Build capacity building of culture practitioners among others.

· Provide data on the contribution of culture to social and economic development.

· Conserve, protect and promote Uganda’s tangible and intangible cultural heritage

· Promote and strengthen Uganda’s diverse cultural identities.

· Strengthen community action on cultural practices that promote and that impinge on human dignity and;

· Enhance social cohesion, collaboration and participation of all people in cultural life.

Livelihoods

Conservation and Tourism Uganda’s livelihoods programme aims to support Uganda’s most disadvantaged communities to increase their resilience by improving food security and creating opportunities for income generation in order to fight poverty according to the National Household Survey 2016/1, has on the rise having increased from 19.7 per cent in the financial year 2012/13 to 21.4 per cent in 2016/2017.

To achieve this, CTU employs a holistic approach that focuses on forging of partnerships between the different stakeholders including international development partners, government institutions and departments at the different levels, non-governmental organizations, CBOs, community institutions and the private sector. The programme is as diverse as the communities where Conservation and Tourism Uganda carries out interventions.

CTU activities under this program focus on the following areas;

· Income generation

· Skills development and Capacity Building

· Education

· Food security and Nutrition

· Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

· Access to resources including natural resources governance

· Community Organizing