Improving Forest Justice

The objective of the Improving Forest Justice policy tool kit is to provide practical guidance to forest institutions in Uganda and elsewhere on how law enforcement agencies and others can put in place systems to eliminate illegality and corruption and install justice for forest-linked livelihoods.

Guiding principles of good governance which have influenced the approach in writing this tool kit are:

• Transparent and equitable relationship between stakeholders
• Participatory decision making
• Separation of powers among institutions to enhance control, and to reduce collusion
• Public accountability
• Rule of law and
• Information disclosure

It is anticipated that the major users of the kit will be “enlightened” actors within government and the judicial system, groups marginalised by the current practice of administering justice, and the Community Based Organisation (CBOs) and Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) that work for the interests of the poor and marginalised.
The tool kit describes a series of steps:

1. Identify the key producers, traders and final consumers of timber and visualise the production-trade-consumption chain.
2. List the laws, regulations and procedures that the players in the chain are supposed to follow in accessing and using timber.
3. List the enforcement agencies and other mandated institutions the players are meant to relate to.
4. Sketch out how the formal processes are supposed to work.
5. Then sketch out how they actually work, or don’t work.
6. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of the process, at all stages, for the poor and marginalised to access justice.
7. Define a strategic approach to improving matters, using a mix of tools which can improve justice in the following areas:
   • Institutions for justice, law and order
   • Timber production
   • Timber trade
   • Timber consumption
8. Record and analyse observations and impact of the tools used in empowering the poor, and promoting sustainable forest management.
9. Adapt and modify tools and work to install successes in policy and institutions.

It is hoped that the complementarity of the tools described will be effective in improving the administration of justice for forest livelihoods. In Uganda and a number of other countries, there are encouraging signs that the environment may be changing in a way which increases the likelihood of tools like these having impact: greater political will to manage forests for poverty reduction; growing confidence in the judiciary by the public; increasing spread of television and radio and a reasonably free press; and growth of an NGO movement advocating for the rights of the poor. The emergence of corporate social responsibility among private companies and environmentally responsible consumerism are also in their very early days but could prove vital.