Review the Uganda Forest Management Planning Guidelines 28 views0 applications

Request for Proposals (RfP)

Review the Uganda Forest Management Planning Guidelines

Requested by IUCN Uganda Country Office (UCO) Land Systems Programme under the Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) Implementation Hub: Delivering the Bonn Challenge. Responsive and Needs-Driven Support and Financing for the Implementation of Carbon-Intensive Forest Landscape Restoration Strategies Delivering National Climate and Development Targets.

Project Nunber: P03298

RfP Reference Number: IUCN-26-04-P03298-08.

Welcome to this Procurement by IUCN. You are hereby invited to submit a Proposal. Please read the information and instructions carefully because non-compliance with the instructions may result in disqualification of your Proposal from this Procurement.

1. REQUIREMENTS
1.1. A detailed description of the services to be provided can be found in Attachment 1.

2. CONTACT DETAILS
2.1.During the course of this procurement, i.e. from the publication of this RfP to the award of a contract, you may not discuss this procurement with any IUCN employee or representative other than the following contact. You must address all correspondence and questions to the contact, including your Proposal.

IUCN Contact: Margaret Amony, Finance and Administrative Officer/ Procurement Focal Person, UCO Email address: [email protected]
3. PROCUREMENT TIMETABLE
This timetable is indicative and may be changed by IUCN at any time. If IUCN decides that changes to any of the deadlines are necessary, we will publish this on our website and contact you directly if you have indicated your interest in this procurement (see Section 3.2).

DATE-ACTIVITY
1st May 2026-Publication of the Request for Proposals
14th May 2026-Deadline for expressions of interest
20 May 2026-Deadline for submission of proposals
21st May 2026-Expected contract award date
1st June 2026-Expected contract start date
30th August 2026-Expected contract end date

Please email the IUCN contact to express your interest in submitting a Proposal by the deadline stated above. This will help IUCN to keep you updated regarding the procurement.

4. COMPLETING AND SUBMITTING A PROPOSAL
4.1. Your Proposal must consist of the following four separate documents:

• Signed Declaration of Undertaking (see Attachment 2)
• Pre-Qualification Information (see Section 4.3 below)
• Technical Proposal (see Section 4.4 below)
• Financial Proposal (see Section 4.5 below)

Proposals must be prepared in English.

4.2. Your Proposal must be submitted by email to the IUCN Contact (see Section 2). The subject heading of the email shall be [RfP Reference No. IUCN-26-04-P03298-08 bidder name]. The bidder name is the name of the company/organisation on whose behalf you are submitting the Proposal, or your own surname if you are bidding as a self-employed consultant. Your Proposal must be submitted in PDF format. You may submit multiple emails suitably annotated, e.g. Email 1 of 3, if attached files are too large to suit a single email transmission. You may not submit your Proposal by uploading it to a file-sharing tool.

IMPORTANT: Submitted documents must be password-protected so that they cannot be opened and read before the submission deadline. Please use the same password for all submitted documents. After the deadline has passed and within 12 hours, please send the password to the IUCN Contact. This will ensure a secure bid submission and opening process. Please DO NOT email the password before the deadline for Proposal submission.

4.3. Pre-Qualification Criteria

IUCN will use the following Pre-Qualification Criteria to determine whether you have the capacity to provide the required goods and/or services to IUCN. Please provide the necessary information in a single, separate document.

Pre-Qualification Criteria

1. 3 relevant references of clients similar to IUCN / similar work

2. Confirm that you have all the necessary legal registrations to perform the work

3. How many employees does your organisation have who are qualified for this work?

4.4. Technical Proposal

The Technical Proposal must address each of the criteria stated in the table below explicitly and separately, quoting the relevant criteria reference number (in the two middle-columns).

Proposals in any other format will significantly increase the time it takes to evaluate, and such Proposals may therefore be rejected at IUCN’s discretion.

Where CVs are requested, these must be of the individuals who will actually carry out the work specified. The individuals you put forward may only be substituted with IUCN’s approval.

IUCN will evaluate Technical Proposals with regards to each of the following criteria and their relative importance as follows:

SN-Technical Evaluation Criteria-Benchmark Scores

1. Level of understanding of the assignment objectives and tasks-10
2. Being able to define the scope of work in sufficient detail-10
3. Articulation of how each objective and task will be executed giving sufficient detail while directing proper level of effort towards each objective and task-20
4. Level of understanding of the expected outputs and providing technical solutions and expected outcomes-15
5. Being able to define the equipment, techniques, tools, approaches and methodologies to be used in executing the assignment.-15
6. Providing assignment schedule in conformity with the assignment scheduling and duration-10
7. Experts CV qualifications, expertise, and past work experience matching with current assignment-20

TOTAL SCORE 100

4.5. Financial Proposal

4.5.1.The Financial Proposal must be a fixed and firm price for the provision of the goods/services stated in the RfP in their entirety.

4.5.2.Prices include all costs
Submitted rates and prices are deemed to include all costs, insurances, taxes (except VAT, see below), fees, expenses, liabilities, obligations, risk and other things necessary for the performance of the Terms of Reference or Specification of Requirements. IUCN will not accept charges beyond those clearly stated in the Financial Proposal. This includes applicable withholding taxes and similar. It is your responsibility to determine whether such taxes apply to your organisation and to include them in your Financial Proposal.

4.5.3. Applicable Goods and Services Taxes
Proposal rates and prices shall be exclusive of Value Added Tax to ensure that we are comparing like for like. This applies regardless of whether the IUCN office in question is exempt from VAT.

4.5.4. Currency of proposed rates and prices
All rates and prices submitted by Proposers shall be in Uganda Shillings.

4.5.5. Breakdown of rates and prices

Include here all the required price information breakdown, for example daily rates or unit prices for goods. The price needs to be broken down as follows:

SN-Description-Quantity-Unit Price-Total Price
1.Professional fees
2.Per diems/Day Day Allowance
3Reimbursables (specify below)
a)
b)
c)
d)
4. Travel expenses

TOTAL

4.6. Additional information not requested by IUCN should not be included in your Proposal and will not be considered in the evaluation.

4.7. Your Proposal must remain valid and capable of acceptance by IUCN for a period of 60 man days following the submission deadline.

4.8. Withdrawals and Changes
You may freely withdraw or change your Proposal at any time prior to the submission deadline by written notice to the IUCN Contact. However, in order to reduce the risk of fraud, no changes or withdrawals will be accepted after the submission deadline.

5. EVALUATION OF PROPOSALS

5.1. Completeness
IUCN will firstly check your Proposal for completeness. Incomplete Proposals will not be considered further.

5.2. Pre-Qualification Criteria
Only Proposals that meet all of the pre-qualification criteria will be evaluated.

5.3.Technical Evaluation
5.3.1. Scoring Method
Your Proposal will be assigned a score from 0 to 10 for each of the technical evaluation criteria, such that ‘0’ is low and ‘10’ is high.
5.3.2. Minimum Quality Thresholds
Proposals that receive a score of ‘0’ for any of the criteria will not be considered further.
5.3.3. Technical Score
Your score for each technical evaluation criterion will be multiplied with the respective relative weight (see Section 4.4) and these weighted scores added together to give your Proposal’s overall technical score.

Subject to the requirements in Sections 4 and 7, IUCN will award the contract to the bidder whose Proposal achieves the highest total score.

5.4. Financial Evaluation and Financial Scores
The financial evaluation will be based upon the full total price you submit. Your Financial Proposal will receive a score calculated by dividing the lowest Financial Proposal that has passed the minimum quality thresholds (see Section 5.3.2) by the total price of your Financial Proposal.

Thus, for example, if your Financial Proposal is for a total of CHF 100 and the lowest Financial Proposal is CHF 80, you will receive a financial score of 80/100 = 80%

5.5. Total Score
Your Proposal’s total score will be calculated as the weighted sum of your technical score and your financial score.

The relative weights will be:
Technical: 70%
Financial: 30%

Thus, for example, if your technical score is 83% and your financial score is 77%, you will receive a total score of 83 * 70% + 77 * 30% = 58.1% + 23.1% = 81.2%.

Subject to the requirements in Sections 4 and 7, IUCN will award the contract to the bidder whose Proposal achieves the highest total score.

6. EXPLANATION OF PROCUREMENT PROCEDURE
6.1. IUCN is using the Open Procedure for this procurement. This means that the contracting opportunity is published on IUCN’s website and open to all interested parties to take part, subject to the conditions in Section 7 below.

6.2. You are welcome to ask questions or seek clarification regarding this procurement. Please email the IUCN Contact (see Section 2), taking note of the deadline for submission of questions in Section 3.1.

6.3. All Proposals must be received by the submission deadline in Section 3.1 above. Late Proposals will not be considered. All Proposals received by the submission deadline will be evaluated by a team of evaluators in accordance with the evaluation criteria stated in this RfP. No other criteria will be used to evaluate Proposals. The contract will be awarded to the bidder whose Proposal received the highest Total Score. IUCN does, however, reserve the right to cancel the procurement and not award a contract at all.

6.4. IUCN will contact the bidder with the highest-scoring Proposal to finalise the contract. We will contact unsuccessful bidders after the contract has been awarded and provide detailed feedback. The timetable in Section 3.1 gives an estimate of when we expect to have completed the contract award, but this date may change depending on how long the evaluation of Proposals takes.

7. CONDITIONS FOR PARTICIPATION IN THIS PROCUREMENT
7.1. To participate in this procurement, you are required to submit a Proposal, which fully complies with the instructions in this RfP and the Attachments.
7.1.1. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have submitted a complete and fully compliant Proposal.
7.1.2. Any incomplete or incorrectly completed Proposal submission may be deemed noncompliant, and as a result you may be unable to proceed further in the procurement process.
7.1.3. IUCN will query any obvious clerical errors in your Proposal and may, at IUCN’s sole discretion, allow you to correct these, but only if doing so could not be perceived as giving you an unfair advantage.

7.2. In order to participate in this procurement, you must meet the following conditions:
 Free of conflicts of interest
 Registered on the relevant professional or trade register of the country in which you are established (or resident, if self-employed)
 In full compliance with your obligations relating to payment of social security contributions and of all applicable taxes
 Not been convicted of failing to comply with environmental regulatory requirements or other legal requirements relating to sustainability and environmental protection
 Not bankrupt or being wound up
 Never been guilty of an offence concerning your professional conduct
 Not involved in fraud, corruption, a criminal organisation, money laundering, terrorism, or any other illegal activity.

7.3. You must complete and sign the Declaration of Undertaking (see Attachment 2).

7.4. If you are participating in this procurement as a member of a joint venture, or are using subcontractors, submit a separate Declaration of Undertaking for each member of the joint venture and sub-contractor, and be clear in your Proposal which parts of the goods/services are provided by each partner or sub-contractor.

7.5. Each bidder shall submit only one Proposal, either individually or as a partner in a joint venture. In case of joint venture, one company shall not be allowed to participate in two different joint ventures in the same procurement nor shall a company be allowed to submit a Proposal both on its behalf and as part of a joint venture for the same procurement. A bidder who submits or participates in more than one Proposal (other than as a subcontractor or in cases of alternatives that have been permitted or requested) shall cause all the Proposals with the bidder’s participation to be disqualified.

7.6. By taking part in this procurement, you accept the conditions set out in this RfP, including the following:
 It is unacceptable to give or offer any gift or consideration to an employee or other representative of IUCN as a reward or inducement in relation to the awarding of a contract. Such action will give IUCN the right to exclude you from this and any future procurements, and to terminate any contract that may have been signed with you.
 Any attempt to obtain information from an employee or other representative of IUCN concerning another bidder will result in disqualification.
 Any price fixing or collusion with other bidders in relation to this procurement shall giveIUCN the right to exclude you and any other involved bidder(s) from this and any future procurements and may constitute a criminal offence.

8. CONFIDENTIALITY AND DATA PROTECTION
8.1. IUCN follows the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The information you submit to IUCN as part of this procurement will be treated as confidential and shared only as required to evaluate your Proposal in line with the procedure explained in this RfP, and for the maintenance of a clear audit trail. For audit purposes, IUCN is required to retain your Proposal in its entirety for 10 years after then end of the resulting contract and make this available to internal and external auditors and donors as and when requested.

8.2. In the Declaration of Undertaking (Attachment 2) you need to give IUCN express permission to use the information you submit in this way, including personal data that forms part of your Proposal. Where you include personal data of your employees (e.g. CVs) in your Proposal, you need to have written permission from those individuals to share this information with IUCN, and for IUCN to use this information as indicated in 8.1. Without these permissions, UCN will not be able to consider your Proposal.

9. COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE
If you have a complaint or concern regarding the propriety of how a competitive process is or has been executed, then please contact [email protected]. Such complaints or concerns will be treated as confidential and are not considered in breach of the above restrictions on communication (Section 2.1).

10. CONTRACT
The contract will be based on IUCN’s template in Attachment 3, the terms of which are not negotiable. They may, however, be amended by IUCN to reflect particular requirements from the donor funding this particular procurement.

11. ABOUT IUCN
IUCN is a membership Union uniquely composed of both government and civil society organisations. It provides public, private and non-governmental organisations with the knowledge and tools that enable human progress, economic development and nature conservation to take place together.

Headquartered in Switzerland, IUCN Secretariat comprises around 1,000 staff with offices in more than 50 countries.

Created in 1948, IUCN is now the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network, harnessing the knowledge, resources and reach of more than 1,300 Member organisations and some 10,000 experts. It is a leading provider of conservation data, assessments and analysis. Its broad membership enables IUCN to fill the role of incubator and trusted repository of best practices, tools and international standards.

IUCN provides a neutral space in which diverse stakeholders including governments, NGOs, scientists, businesses, local communities, indigenous peoples’ organisations and others can work together to forge and implement solutions to environmental challenges and achieve sustainable development.

Working with many partners and supporters, IUCN implements a large and diverse portfolio of conservation projects worldwide. Combining the latest science with the traditional knowledge of local communities, these projects work to reverse habitat loss, restore ecosystems and improve people’s well being.

12. ATTACHMENTS
Attachment 1 Specification of Requirements / Terms of Reference
Attachment 2 Declaration of Undertaking (select 2a for companies or 2b for self-employed as applicable to you)
Attachment 3 Contract Template

Attachment 1

Specification of Requirements / Terms of Reference

THE REPUBLIC OF UGANDA

Ministry of Water and Environment

Department of Forest Management (DFM)

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Consultancy Services to Support the Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE) to Review the Uganda Forest Management Planning Guidelines and Align Them with a Landscape Management Planning Approach

Project Title

Review of the Uganda Forest Management Planning Guidelines

**Location:**Republic of Uganda

**Duration:**4 Months

**Contracting Party:**IUCN – International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources

**Beneficiary Organization :**Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE),

Plot 21/28 Port Bell Road, Luzira; P.O. Box 20026, Kampala,

+256 417 889 400

[email protected]

**Reporting To:**Project Steering Committee Co-chaired by the Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE) and IUCN, with Secretariat Support from the Department of Forest Management (DFM)

1. INTRODUCTION
IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources through the International Climate Initiative [(Internationale Klimaschutzinitiative) IKI] of Germany has received financing from the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety Consumer Protection (BMUV) of Germany towards the cost of project: The Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) Implementation Hub: Delivering the Bonn Challenge. Responsive and needs-driven support and financing for the implementation of carbon-intensive forest landscape restoration strategies delivering national climate and development targets. This global project is being implemented in six countries, Uganda, Tanzania, Madagascar, Brazil, Colombia, and Peru. The project is implemented by a Consortium of International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as the overall global project lead, Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) and World Resources Institute (WRI). The IUCN Uganda Country Office (UCO) is the lead implementing institution of the project in Uganda, working together with Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), World Resources Institute (WRI) and the Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE) to implement various activities.

The project is implementing on ground FLR activities and will provide operational and technical oversight to strengthen enabling environments for FLR coordination and governance, develop a pipeline of future FLR projects, provide mechanisms to connect these projects with investors and funders and support FLR monitoring integration at the landscape, sub-national and national levels. Coordinated knowledge management, capacity building, advocacy, and the catalysation of additional public and private funding will support the restoration of 200,000 ha of degraded forest landscapes and the sequestration of 500,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent. By contributing to long-term, regional FLR implementation, the project can catalyse sustainable livelihoods, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and biodiversity conservation beyond the six target countries.

IUCN now intends to apply part of the agreed amounts for this Grant to payments under the Contract for the project for selection of an Expert Consultant in Forest Management Planning to support the Ministry of Water and Environment to review the Uganda Forest Management Planning Guidelines and Align them with a Landscape Management Planning Approach.

2. RATIONALE
Uganda’s forest resources play a critical role in biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation, ecosystem services provision, and livelihoods. The current Forest Management Planning Guidelines provide a framework for planning and managing forest resources; however, emerging and evolving environmental, social, and economic challenges require a more integrated and holistic planning approach. The landscape planning approach promotes coordination across sectors, land uses, and stakeholders to balance conservation, production, and livelihood objectives at scale. Aligning the Forest Management Planning Guidelines with a landscape management planning approach will enhance cross-sectoral integration, strengthen resilience, and improve sustainable land and forest management outcomes.

3. BACKGROUND
The law relating to forest management plans (FMPs) is mainly rooted in the Forestry Act, CAP 160 and the associated Forestry Regulations, 2016 as follows:

1. Section 27, Sub-section (1), of the Forestry Act obligates the Ministry responsible for forestry management in this case Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE) to prepare Forest Management Plans (FMPs) in consultation with local communities (as defined in the Act). It also contains an outline of the minimum content in the structure of the FMPs.
2. Regulation 7 in the Forestry Regulations provides for creation of Forest Management Units (FMUs) (called forest management areas in the law), which may be one or more forest units.
3. Regulation 6 of the Forestry Regulations outlines procedures for preparing and approving of FMPs.
4. Section 27, Sub-section 3, of the Forestry Act and Regulation 6 (4) confers powers of approval of the FMPs to the Minister responsible for Forestry.
5. The MWE Guideline for Development of Forest Management Plans, 2005 describes a detailed planning process and presents a Forest Management Plan (FMP) format.

While the planning intent in these prescriptions is inclusive, experience shows that the management focus is inadvertently put on roundwood for timber and poles, and biodiversity conservation, with peripheral references to Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs), firewood and charcoal, High Conservation Values (HCVs), and environmental values. Most importantly, there are emerging planning issues, challenges and frameworks, and these include are not limited to:

3.1 A Forest Management Plan (FMP) is commonly one document, but it may include several documents

The revised Forestry Policy defines FMPs as collections of documents, reports, records, and maps that describe, justify, and regulate the forest management activities carried out by any institution. That means the FMP can be one stand-alone document, or it can be constituted to include several documents that are linked to meet the objectives of management for that FMU. In such types of multiple-document FMPs, the links should be clearly articulated to form a coherent integrated management system that may include specific guidelines and operating procedures, chains of custody, value addition, and marketing, among others. In addition, Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) are increasingly being required in management at FMU levels. Therefore, FMPs are required to include actions that would mitigate risks to HSE, thus risk-based forest management planning as a core component of the planning process. Furthermore, it will be necessary to integrate social safeguards which are instrumental in addressing and managing the social impacts associated with implementation of FMPs.

3.2 A Forest Management Plan (FMP) may encompass more than one forest unit

The draft Uganda Standard Forestry Practices: A Handbook for Forestry Practitioners requires forest management planning to adopt the landscape planning approach. This approach applies to preparation of FMPs, District Forestry Development Plan (DFDPs) and Annual Work Plans (Section 3.6.3). The handbook also defines “landscape” as a cluster of interacting ecosystem types. This means that each FMP will determine the geographical extent of its landscape. The handbook also outlines several instructions for forest management planning (Section 7.7.1) and catchment planning (Section 7.8). To this end, the handbook provides a leeway for each RB to develop planning procedure manuals tailored to their specific mandate and circumstances. Annex 19 of the handbook outlines the framework/ structure of a standard FMP.

3.3 Private sector involvement in forest management and systems

The Ministry of Water and Environment has developed Guidelines for Registration and Management of Private Natural Forests in Uganda. Although designed specifically for private forests, the planning guidelines can be used by other actors in the forestry sector. MWE would find them useful in preparing “start-up” FMPs of small FMUs which have not yet been brought under forest management for commercial purposes. Such forests would typically be woodland/ bush ecosystems, or often small stand-alone degraded tropical moist forests which are useful for ecosystem services. On the other hand, the private sector involved in commercial plantation forestry has developed online integrated management systems composed of the FMP documents on digital systems like Microforest. The system encompasses the entire lifecycle of forestry operations.

3.4 Requirements of the Uganda National Forest Stewardship Standard

The Forest Stewardship Council defines a management plan as “the collection of documents, reports, records and maps that describe, justify and regulate the activities carried out by any manager, staff or organization within or in relation to the Management Unit, including statements of objectives and policies”. Therefore, a FMP may consist of one all-inclusive document, or several stand-alone documents which are clearly linked for ease of reference and use in the forest management process. Principle 7 of the Uganda National Forest Stewardship Standard (NFSS) requires the relevant organization to have a management plan consistent with its policies and objectives, and proportionate to scale, intensity and risks of its management activities. Annex E of the NFSS provides an outline of the minimum content of a FMP. On another note, the NFSS requires action planning for environmental values and HCVs including action planning for rare, threatened, and endangered species.

3.5 A need for inclusion of ecosystem services and goods in planning

Despite the many benefits from nature that people get, ecosystems continue to degrade. One of the reasons often mentioned is that money spent on nature conservation, landscape restoration and sustainable land management is seen as a cost and not as an investment with a high return in benefits The FSC Ecosystem Services Procedure recognises carbon sequestration and storage, biodiversity conservation, watershed services, soil conservation, and recreation as key components of ecosystem services. Methodologies (such as those developed by Verra to implement verified carbon standards) are designed to enable estimation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions/ removals resulting from the implementation of different types of forestry projects. These methods have requirements for forest management planning. Ecosystem services management guides have also been developed by development cooperation agencies like the EU, World Bank, etc.

3.6 Adoption of forest landscape/ catchment management planning in Uganda

Forest landscape management is increasingly being seen as a holistic approach that caters for environmental, social, and economic requirements in responsible forest management. Government of Uganda has issued the Catchment Management Planning Guidelines which are designed to operate with a landscape planning approach. The landscapes have been delineated into four water management zones. The guidelines can be adapted to the FMU planning needs with respect to the seven forest landscape restoration zones delineated in the Forest Landscape Restoration – Restoration Opportunity Assessment Report, 2016.

4. PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT

4.1 Purpose
The purpose of this consultancy is to review the existing Uganda Forest Management Planning Guidelines and revise them to align with a landscape planning approach, ensuring coherence with national policies, regional and global best practices, and emerging environmental and socio-economic priorities identified in Section 3 above among others.

4.2 Overall objective
The overall objective of the assignment is to align Uganda’s Forest Management Planning Guidelines with a landscape planning approach to support integrated, inclusive, and sustainable forest and land-use management.

4.3 Specific Objectives
The specific objectives of the assignment are to:

1. Review the current Forest Management Planning Guidelines and identify gaps, strengths, and areas for improvement.
2. Assess the extent to which the existing guidelines integrate landscape-level principles, cross-sectoral coordination, and stakeholder engagement.
3. Define and develop landscape level planning operational scales and framework and decision support tools.
4. Incorporate landscape planning concepts, tools, and processes into the revised guidelines.
5. Ensure alignment with relevant national policies, legal frameworks, and international commitments (e.g. climate change, biodiversity, and sustainable development).
6. Develop a Forest Planning Guidelines for preparation and revision of FMPs for Central Forest Reserves (CFRs). The guideline will include a standard structure of the FMP.
7. Develop practical guidance for implementation the aligned guidelines at national, sub-national, and local levels.
8. Ensure that the guidelines are developed in compatibility with national forest monitoring systems (NFMS), MRV frameworks, and existing databases (FOMIS/WEIS).

5. SCOPE OF WORK AND TASKS
Given the wide range of possibilities for forest management planning that are available, it is important that MWE works out a procedure that is manageable, and which will lead to development of FMPs that are cost effective in their implementation. The guidelines will be applicable at Forest Management Area (FMA) level in Central Forest Reserves (CFRs), but other forestry practitioners may use them in their processes of developing FMP practices applicable for their own forests.

In this regard, the consultant will undertake, but not be limited to, the following tasks:

a) Desk Review

1. Review existing Forest Management Planning Guidelines and other relevant documents.
2. Review relevant national policies, laws, strategies, and plans related to forestry, land use, climate change, biodiversity, and development.
3. Review international best practices and case studies on landscape planning and integrated forest management.

b) Stakeholder Consultations

1. Carry out consultations with actors who are or have been involved in preparing and/ or implementing the current FMPs for the CFRs.
2. Identify and consult other key stakeholders, including government agencies, local governments, civil society, private sector, community representatives, and development partners.
3. Facilitate validation meetings or workshops as required.

c) Guideline Revision, Alignment and Testing

1. Integrate landscape planning principles such as multi-sector coordination, ecosystem connectivity, participatory planning, gender and social inclusion, climate resilience, and monitoring at scale.
2. Propose tools and methodologies for landscape-level planning, implementation, and monitoring.
3. Ensure practical applicability for different forest tenure systems and management regimes.
4. Develop a standard structure of the FMP and show how implementation of the FMPs based on this structure will link into the Standard Forestry Practices (SFPs) and the Forest Information Management System (FIMS).
5. Field test the new guidelines and FMP structure in selected CFRs, including training of selected field staff on its use and adjusting where required.
6. Validation, Finalization and Development of Guidelines
   1. Present draft revised guidelines for stakeholder review.
   2. Incorporate feedback, finalize and produce the aligned Forest Management Planning Guidelines for development of FMPs for CFRs

6. DELIVERABLES

The consultant shall produce the following deliverables (Table 1):

Table 1: Deliverables

Deliverable-Description of Main Activities-Deadline

Inception report -15th June 2026

1. Review the relevant documents to guide the methodology that leads to development of the Revised Forest Planning Guidelines and the Forest Management Plans (FMPs) Structure. Literature review should include reviews of related planning guidelines such as the past NFA Forest Management Planning Guidelines, MWE Catchment Planning Guidelines, UWA Protected Area Planning Guidelines, private sector, carbon projects, landscape approaches, forest certification standards, etc.
2. Outlining methodology, work plan, and stakeholder engagement approach based on the review in (a).
3. Provide a list of stakeholder institutions to be consulted in tandem with the proposed methodology.

Review report highlighting gaps and opportunities in the current guidelines-30th June 2026

1. Consultations with actors who are/ were involved in preparing and/or implementing the current Forest Planning Guidelines and FMPs and other key stakeholders.
2. Synthesize the information from the reviewed documents and stakeholders highlighted above into draft working documents.

Framework of revised Forest Management Planning Guidelines aligned with a landscape planning approach.-30th July 2026

1. Draft of the Standard Forest Management Planning Guidelines and FMP structure aligned with a landscape planning approach. The formats should accommodate all types of forestlands in CFRs (tropical moist forests, woodlands, bush/grasslands and plantations). The FMP format may be designed as one or multiple documents.

Stakeholder consultation and validation report.-30th August 2026

1. Conduct field testing of the new guidelines and FMP structure in selected CFRs. Preferably FMAs would be selected to consider a variety of ecological and economical configurations (e.g. predominantly, or a combination of woodland areas, tropical moist forests, plantations, critical biodiversity areas, ecosystem services, etc). Consistent with the provisions of the SFPs, the field testing will be done simultaneously with training of MWE staff in the selected FMP Areas in using the guidelines. The new guidelines will then be adjusted to incorporate the experiences from the field-testing work.
2. The stakeholder consultation workshop will be held in Kampala. It will involve selected MWE staff from Headquarters and the field, civil society organizations that are actively engaged in management of CFRs, private forest owners operating in CFRs, and Uganda Wildlife Authority, among others. The detailed list of participants will be generated by the consultant in the process of reviewing documents.
3. The draft guidelines will receive an input of the Senior Management Meeting of the MWE at the initiation and final draft level, and will be subjected to the Top Policy Meeting of the MWE for endorsement

Final revised and validated Forest Management Planning Guidelines-30th September 2026

1. Incorporate field testing and stakeholder inputs and comments into the draft documents and produce the final documents.
2. Submit the Final Guidelines (to be submitted in English, in both editable and PDF formats). Note: web-based links and references should be made in the hard copies.

7. DURATION OF THE ASSIGNMENT
This assignment is for a period of four (4) calendar months and comes into effect upon its signature by both Parties (the “Effective Date”) and will expire upon the elapse of the 4 months (the “Expiration Date”).

8. SUPERVISION, COORDINATION AND REPORTING
The Consultant will work under the overall supervision of the Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE) in close coordination and collaboration with relevant Government Ministries, Departments, Agencies, and development partners. The MWE is the lead government institution responsible for coordinating climate change policy, planning, and reporting in Uganda, including oversight of national Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) systems and reporting obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the Consultant is expected to work within this framework. The Consultant will be required to provide regular progress updates to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and liaise with IUCN, the Contracting Authority of this assignment through the MWE on financial matters.

9. REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE
The consultant should possess:

1. An advanced degree in forestry, natural resource management, environmental planning, landscape management, or a related field.
2. At least 10 years of experience in forest management planning and/or landscape planning.
3. Demonstrated experience in policy and guideline review and development.
4. Strong understanding of Uganda’s forestry and land-use governance context.
5. Proven stakeholder engagement and facilitation skills.
6. Excellent analytical, writing, and communication skills.

10. PAYMENT SCHEDULE
Payments shall be made in four (4) in statements, linked to the satisfactory completion and approval of deliverables by the MWE and IUCN, according to the payment schedule in Table 2.

Table 2: Payment schedule

SN-Deliverable-Payment Instalment

1. Inception report outlining methodology, work plan, and stakeholder engagement approach.-20%
2. Report highlighting gaps and opportunities in the current guidelines and Framework of the Draft Revised Forest Management Planning Guidelines aligned with a landscape planning approach.-30%
3. Draft revised Forest Management Planning Guidelines aligned with a landscape planning approach.-30%
4. Stakeholder consultation and validation report and Final revised and validated Forest Management Planning Guidelines.-20%

11. DATA OWNERSHIP AND CONFIDENTIALITY
All data, information, and outputs produced under this assignment shall remain the property of the Government of Uganda. The consultant shall maintain confidentiality and shall not disclose information without prior written consent from the Permanent Secretary (PS), Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE).

IUCN follows the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The information you submit to IUCN as part of this procurement will be treated as confidential and shared only as required to evaluate your proposal in line with the procedure explained in this RfP, and for the maintenance of a clear audit trail. For audit purposes, IUCN is required to retain your proposal in its entirety for 10 years and make this available to internal and external auditors and donors as and when requested.

12. EVALUATION CRITERIA
The valuation will be conducted using the evaluation criteria in Table 3.

Table 3: Evaluation Criteria

SN-Technical Evaluation Criteria-Benchmark Scores
1. Level of understanding of the assignment objectives and tasks-10
2. Being able to define the scope of work in sufficient detail-10
3. Articulation of how each objective and task will be executed giving sufficient detail while directing proper level of effort towards each objective and task-20
4. Level of understanding of the expected outputs and providing technical solutions and expected outcomes-15
5. Being able to define the equipment, techniques, tools, approaches and methodologies to be used in executing the assignment.-15
6. Providing assignment schedule in conformity with the assignment scheduling and duration-10
7. Experts CV qualifications, expertise, and past work experience matching with current assignment-20

TOTAL SCORE-100

13 ABOUT IUCN
IUCN is a membership Union uniquely composed of both government and civil society organisations. It provides public, private and non-governmental organisations with the knowledge and tools that enable human progress, economic development and nature conservation to take place together. Headquartered in Switzerland, IUCN Secretariat comprises around 1,000 staff with offices in more than 50 countries.

Created in 1948, IUCN is now the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network, harnessing the knowledge, resources and reach of more than 1,300 Member organisations and some 10,000 experts. It is a leading provider of conservation data, assessments and analysis. Its broad membership enables IUCN to fill the role of incubator and trusted repository of best practices, tools and international standards.

IUCN provides a neutral space in which diverse stakeholders including governments, NGOs, scientists, businesses, local communities, indigenous peoples organisations and others can work together to forge and implement solutions to environmental challenges and achieve sustainable development.

Working with many partners and supporters, IUCN implements a large and diverse portfolio of conservation projects worldwide. Combining the latest science with the traditional knowledge of local communities, these projects work to reverse habitat loss, restore ecosystems and improve people’s well-being.

Declaration of Undertaking in relation to RfP IUCN-26-04-P03298-08.

I, the undersigned, hereby confirm that I am an authorised representative of the following organisation:

Registered Name of Organisation (the “Organisation”): _______________________

Registered Address (incl. country): _______________________________________

Year of Registration:__________________________________________________

I hereby authorise IUCN to store and use the information included in the attached Proposal for the purpose of evaluating Proposals and selecting the Proposal IUCN deems the most favourable. I acknowledge that IUCN is required to retain the Proposal in its entirety for 10 years after then end of the resulting contract and make this available to internal and external auditors and donors as and when reasonably requested.

Where the Proposal includes Personal Data as defined by the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), I confirm that the Organisation has been authorised by each Data Subject to share this Data with IUCN for the purposes stated above.

I further confirm that the following statements are correct:

1. The Organisation is duly registered in accordance with all applicable laws.
2. The Organisation is fully compliant with all its tax and social security obligations.
3. The Organisation and its staff and representatives are free of any real or perceived conflicts of interest with regards to IUCN and its Mission.
4. The Organisation agrees to declare to IUCN any real or perceived emerging conflicts of interests it or any of its staff and representatives may have concerning IUCN. The Organisation acknowledges that IUCN may terminate any contracts with the Organisation that would, in IUCN sole discretion, be negatively affected by such conflicts of interests.
5. None of the Organisation’s staff has ever been convicted of grave professional misconduct or any other offence concerning their professional conduct.
6. Neither the Organisation nor any of its staff and representatives have ever been convicted of fraud, corruption, money laundering, supporting terrorism or involvement in a criminal organisation.
7. The Organisation acknowledges that engagement by itself or any of its staff in fraud, corruption, money laundering, supporting terrorism or involvement in a criminal organisation will entitle IUCN to terminate any and all contracts with the Organisation with immediate effect.
8. The Organisation is a going concern and is not bankrupt or being wound up, is not having its affairs administered by the courts, has not suspended business activities, is not the subject of proceedings concerning those matters, or in any analogous situation arising from a similar procedure provided for in national legislation or regulations.
9. The Organisation complies with all applicable environmental regulatory requirements or other legal requirements relating to sustainability and environmental protection.
10. The Organisation is not included in the UN Security Council Sanctions List, EU Sanctions Map, US Office of Foreign Assets Control Sanctions List, or the World Bank listing of ineligible firms and individuals. The Organisation agrees that it will not provide direct or indirect support to firms and individuals included in these lists.
11. The Organisation has not been, is not, and will not be involved or implicated in any violations of Indigenous Peoples’ rights, or injustice or abuse of human rights related to other groups or individuals, including forced evictions, violation of fundamental rights of workers as defined by the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Declaration on the Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, child labour, sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, or sexual harassment.

______________________________________________________

< Name and position of authorised representative of the Proposer >

DECLARATION OF UNDERTAKING for self-employed in relation to RfP IUCN-26-04-P03298-08.

I, the undersigned, hereby confirm that I am self-employed and able to provide the service independent of any organisation or other legal entity.

Full name (as in passport):

Home or Office (please delete as appropriate) Address (incl. country):

I hereby authorise IUCN to store and use the information included in the attached Proposal for the purpose of evaluating Proposals and selecting the Proposal IUCN deems the most favourable, including Personal Data as defined by the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). I acknowledge that IUCN is required to retain my Proposal in its entirety for 10 years after then end of the resulting contract and make this available to internal and external auditors and donors as and when reasonably requested.

I further confirm that the following statements are correct:

1. I am legally registered as self-employed in accordance with all applicable laws.
2. I am fully compliant with all my tax and social security obligations.
3. I am free of any real or perceived conflicts of interest with regards to IUCN and its Mission.
4. I agree to declare to IUCN any real or perceived emerging conflicts of interests I may have concerning IUCN. I acknowledge that IUCN may terminate any contracts with me that would, in IUCN sole discretion, be negatively affected by such conflicts of interests.
5. I have never been convicted of grave professional misconduct or any other offence concerning my professional conduct.
6. I have never been convicted of fraud, corruption, money laundering, supporting terrorism or involvement in a criminal organisation.
7. I acknowledge that engagement in fraud, corruption, money laundering, supporting terrorism or involvement in a criminal organisation will entitle IUCN to terminate any and all contracts with me with immediate effect.
8. I am not included in the UN Security Council Sanctions List, EU Sanctions Map, US Office of Foreign Assets Control Sanctions List, or the World Bank listing of ineligible firms and individuals. I agree that I will not provide direct or indirect support to firms and individuals included in these lists.
9. I have not been, am not, and will not be involved or implicated in any violations of Indigenous Peoples’ rights, or injustice or abuse of human rights related to other groups or individuals, including forced evictions, violation of fundamental rights of workers as defined by the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Declaration on the Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, child labour, sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, or sexual harassment.

______________________________________________________