Community willingness to contribute to nature‐based solutions around Budongo Central Forest, Uganda

Communities are important stakeholders in implementing nature‐based solutions (NbS). Therefore, understanding their practices and contributions is essential for the implementation of NbS. This study applied both qualitative and quantitative approaches to collect data from 156 respondents in a household survey using a semi‐structured questionnaire with open‐ and close‐ended questions. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, correlations and regressions. Majority of the respondents applied cover cropping, forest/streamside buffering, tree planting (to reduce dependence on neighbouring Budongo Central Forest Reserve (CFR) for fuelwood), wetland restoration, minimum tillage and agroforestry on their lands. NbS were more practiced on customary land compared to other land tenures in the area. Results reveal an attitude‐behavioural gap in willingness to expand/have NbS and implementation of NbS on household land. Households who were willing to contribute to the management of NbS were likely to have a lesser proportion of land maintained as NbS zones. As such, willingness to expand/have NbS does not necessarily translate into implementation of the NbS. This community attitude‐behavioural gap could be caused by competing land use practices, such as commercial sugarcane agriculture, that require big chunks of homogenous land and the incomes accrued therefrom. This suggests that NbS ought to directly benefit host communities; else, they risk being outcompeted by other economically viable land uses. Practical implication . Therefore, future policy should be designed to facilitate win–win scenarios for NbS and other community land use practices. Facilitating NbS at a national scale using the bottom‐up approach would offer opportunities for community buy‐in and sustainability of such NbS. National Land Use Policy should consider local landscape zoning to include NbS and/or the aspect of ‘nature’ as a key zone amidst the other land uses. This could be brought off by raising awareness on the benefits NbS could yield for conservation and humanity. This would encourage more households to strike a balance between competing land uses, such as commercial sugarcane growing, that require big chunks of homogenous land, and the implementation of NbS to degraded landscapes around the Budongo Central Forest Reserve, Uganda.