Mount Elgon ecosystem has two major areas in approximately equal proportions; Mt. Elgon National Park, consisting of mainly natural forest at the centre and human settlements adjacent to it. The key problem facing the ecosystem is the inability of the Mt. Elgon ecosystem to sustainably meet the conservation and livelihoods needs of the people. This is largely attributed to the fact that livelihoods of the peoples of the Mt. Elgon ecosystem are primarily small-scale subsistence agricultural-based, hence directly dependent on the natural resources endowment and the majority of people are poor. The situation is being complicated by the current effects of climate change on the people and their surrounding environment. Secondly, there appears to be inadequate NGOs and CBOs capacities to sustainably manage and develop Mt. Elgon ecosystems despite the fact that they are many in the area.

This research study project is designed to evaluate the performance of NGOs and CBOs in meeting sustainable management of forest, water and soil on Mount Elgon, Uganda. The evaluation will be carried out by identify and assess sustainability issues of the management systems applied by NGOs and CBOs to manage forest, soil and water assessing opportunities and challenges facing NGOs and CBOs in meeting their objectives. Also analysis of stakeholders will be carried out.

Data will be collected using a representative sample of Mount Elgon ecosystem and will be chosen without compromising the level of sample accuracy. Sample choosing will be guided by statistical set controlling factors such as the following below:

- Number of NGOs, CBOs and government agencies present in an area

- Area of operation- village, parish or Sub country

- Ethnic group on the mountain- Sabiny and Bagisu

- Catchment area-Encroachment level, poor or good land use

- Participatory Rural Appraisal tools such as structured questionnaires, direct observation, gender analysis, institutional analysis, multi-round natural resource use survey will be used. Data analysis will be done using computer packages such as SPSS.

The research will take one year (2010) and will be supervised at the level of Ph.D. study programme at Makerere University institute of Environment and Natural Resources in Kampala. It will be led by Mr. Kato Stonewall, a Ph.D. student with other three research assistants. The researchers while in the field will be based in Mbale and Kapchorwa towns both located in the study area and Makerere University for supervisory activities.