Reviving Batwa Traditions Through Community-Based Climate Action
PELUM Uganda was constituted in 1995 as a network of like-minded Civil Social Organizations working to improve the livelihoods of Smallholder farmers and the sustainability of rural communities (including indigenous peoples) through fostering ecological land use management. In this project, PELUM is working with the Batwa, one of Uganda’s most marginalized Indigenous communities, forcibly evicted from their ancestral forest lands by the government without a planned resettlement. This has forced the Batwa to face deep social and cultural disruption due to climate change, lack of land, and access to production resources, leading to severe non-economic losses, e.g., loss of identity, ancestral ties, and intergenerational knowledge, alongside increasing poverty and exclusion from policy-making processes/spaces.
Profile
Grant:
2025: $88,000
CJRF Region:
East Africa
Why PELUM?
With CJRF’s support, PELUM seeks to build resilience of the Batwa community amid climate change, provide off-the-land survival alternatives, restore their dignity, heritage, as well as promote transmission of intergenerational knowledge. PELUM will implement a locally tailored initiative to revitalize Batwa agroecological knowledge, strengthen community seed systems, promote Indigenous-led adaptation strategies, and document traditional climate responses. The project will also address gender-based violence, support advocacy for Indigenous land rights, and amplify Batwa voices in policy platforms. CJRF supports PELUM for its long-standing expertise in participatory ecological models and its commitment to Indigenous leadership and cultural survival in the face of landlessness and climate-induced marginalization.
Photo courtesy of PELUM Uganda.