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allocating revenue from tourism to local communities.
This mechanism needs to be harmonized across the
subregion. Currently, inUganda, 20 per cent of the total
gate fees from all national parks go towards supporting
local communities; except in the Mghahinga Gorilla
National Park and the Bwindi Impenetrable National
Park which includes an additional supplement of 5 per
cent of all gorilla permit fees. In Rwanda 5 per cent of
all tourism revenue is allocated to local communities
while in the DRC such a policy has not yet been
developed due to the political insecurity in the country.
An evaluation of policies and institutional
frameworks in the region clearly indicates that, at
present, there are adequate policy and institutional
frameworks to enable the effective implementation of
programmes for sustainable mountain development.
However, climate change policies do not specifically
focus on mountains in particular (EAC 2011),
even up to the present, and therefore there is need
to pragmatically integrate issues of climate change
adaptation and resilience. There is an urgent need
for review and harmonization of policies and
institutional frameworks to make the mountain
development agenda more relevant to the changing
climatic conditions.
In Ethiopia, both environmental policies and laws
exist (EPA, 1997; 2012). However, few policies contain
specific sections on mountains. For example, within
the environmental policy there are sections that
concern the sustainable management of resources in
the highlands, particularly soil erosion and general
land management. Similarly, Ethiopian environmental
laws contain proclamations on environmental
management with some sections which can be used to
addressmountainissues:WaterResourceManagement
Proclamation (No. 197/2000); Establishment of
Environmental Protection Organs Proclamation (no.
295/2002); Biodiversity Conservation Proclamation
(No. 381/2004); Environmental Impact Assessment
Proclamation (No. 299/2002). In Eritrea, at present
there is no formal environmental legislation or
legislation specifically relating to mountains. The
legislation that directly addresses the environment
includes the Eritrea Biosafety Act. It should be noted,
however, that in 2001 Eritrea submitted a National
Communication to the UNFCCC which provides
an indication of ongoing efforts to address climate
change and other environmental issues, some of
which relate to sustainable development in mountain
areas (GOE, 2001).
In many of the countries in East Africa, governance
is either decentralized or semi-decentralized
(EAC, 2006). Governance of natural resources and
sustainable mountain development is normally the
responsibility of local government structures.
At the subnational level, elements of national
programmes are implemented based on their
relevance to each specific region or district. In a
few cases, some programmes may be developed and
implemented by subnational governance structures
themselves. Data and information at these levels,
however, remains scarce and can only be obtained
through national programmes.
Decentralization is meant to strengthen access to
services for local communities. Experiences across
East Africa indicate a mixture of success and failure.
Approachestolocalgovernancedifferamongcountries.
Governance in Tanzania, for example, is based on a
regional system, which is further decentralized to the
district level; this creates layers of bureaucracy which
may delay service delivery. In Uganda, on the other
Drummers and dancers in Gitega, Burundi