EFFECTIVENESS & EFFICIENCY IN CONSERVATION FINANCING
From Innovation to Implementation with a Lasting Positive Impact On                                      Conservation
  

The Environmental Conservation Trust of Uganda (ECOTRUST) will host a stakeholders' event on Friday 6th of May 2016 in Kampala, Uganda, to highlight its key achievements for 2015 and to share its plans for 2016.

ECOTRUST is a not for profit environmental Trust whose mission is to conserve biological diversity and enhance social welfare by promoting innovative and sustainable environmental management. Its goal is to provide sustained funding for conservation. Founded in 1999 in Uganda, ECOTRUST is committed to creating and maintaining cost-effective and efficient mechanisms to improve natural resource management, building resilience to climate change while investing in programs that increase income opportunities for the rural poor.

Last year 2015, ECOTRUST launched initiatives to establish an Endowment Fund and the main focus for the 2016 stakeholders' event, is to provide an update on the progress on the  capitalisation of this fund under the theme Effectiveness & Efficiency in Conservation Financing. During the event, we will share with you our capitalisation approach, which is designed to generate a wholesome financial package for conservation that optimizes new opportunities through investments in environmentally friendly business options, which currently include the following:
Celebrating the One Millionth Ton of Carbon Dioxide sequestered by  Ugandan Smallholder farmers.

This has been made possible by The Carbon Bank under Trees for Global  Benefit. TGB is a cooperative carbon-offsetting scheme that has mobilised  farmers to work towards improving the management of productive  and natural systems on which they depend for their basic needs of  food, water, fuelwood etc. The carbon bank makes payments to tree  farmers as a reward for increasing carbon stocks on their farms. In  addition to the financial rewards the communities also receive nonfinancial  rewards to individual households and to the entire community  in which the farmer's live.The Bank aggregates the sequestered carbon  across multiple producers and sells it in the voluntary market to  generate sustainable income, recapitalize itself and expand farmer  participation in the program.
PES business case for Ecosystem Based Adaptation to Climate Change.

With support from UNDP, ECOTRUST has developed a model 
demonstrating how through careful design, Payment for 
Environmental Services can deliver tangible benefits for farmers and 
other parties involved.At the stakeholders' event, we will share with 
you how communities in Mt Elgon, have developed Parish level 
Adaptation Plans, whose implementation demonstrates that water 
utilities can benefit from cleaner water through improved catchment
management). The lessons indicate that it is possible to significantly 
reduce the cost of water treatment by adopting sustainable land-use 
plans, which reduce siltation & sedimentation.
Making the Rwenzoris Uganda's leading Sustainable Tourism Destination.

ECOTRUST is investing in another social enterprise, the Rwenzori 
Gateway to specifically mobilise resources to benefit the conservation of 
the Rwenzori Mountains as well as to improve livelihoods of the 
communities within the catchment of this World Heritage Site. During 
the stakeholder's event, participants will be given an opportunity to 
undertake a 3 Dimensional virtual tour of Rwenzori Gateway and its 
state of the art Equator Snow Lodge. The Rwenzori Gateway project 
seeks to promote the Rwenzori's as a sustainable tourism destination, 
an approach that will be used to mobilise resources for 
conservation.
The event will take place at the Sheraton Hotel in Kampala, Uganda on Friday 6th May 2016.  Participation is by invitation only. Please email [email protected] OR  [email protected] if you wish to attend.

The Environmental Conservation Trust of Uganda (ECOTRUST) | +256-41-322573  | [email protected] | http://www.ecotrust.or.ug