Government regulatory system and compliance with Forestry Policy in South Busoga Forest Reserve, Mayuge district-Uganda

Abstract

Administrative innuendo exhibited in the Ugandan forestry docket had its genesis from de-legitimisation of the policies ostensibly, attributed to conflicts by stakeholders on natural resources, manifested in non-compliance and ineffective enforcement hence, the petering out of the government owned forest reserves in the country. A total of 344 respondents participated from the households within and engulfing South Busoga Central Forest Reserve (SBCFR) and 31 conservationists forming the government regulatory system participated in this research. The study showed that there was a moderate relationship between government regulatory system and the local community's compliance with the UFP in 2001 at 0.422. The Chi statistic values showed that none of the elements of the government regulatory system was <9.21 at 0.01 df=2 thus statistically insignificant. It was also found that the elements of government regulatory system were not properly coordinated despite being loosely under NEMA and the local politicians usurped both the powers and authority of NFA in either enforcement of UFP in 2001 hence, rendering NFA officials incompetent. Thus to avoid de-legitimization of the UFP 2001, there was a need to have a positive political will and NFA to reclaim from the politicians its constitutional rights to effectively manage the central forest reserves in the country