Forest Products, Livelihoods and Conservation

176 Carved wooden drums and trade in Mpigi district, Uganda

Generally the wood must be:

• easily workable, i.e., easy to hollow out and carve into a desired drum
  shape without damage;


• light in weight because drums are portable instruments;


• easy to sun dry without warping and cracking;


• of straight, unblemished boles free of branches;


• available in the vicinity; and


• resistant to insect and pest attack (especially wood borers).

It was found that harvesting of trees for drum making in two of the study

forests, viz., Lufuka and Degeya, was not sustainable. The volume of round

wood used by drum makers in 1999 was 1,113.76 m^3 , whereas the calculated

combined annual allowable cut volume was 502.9 m^3. These figures imply an

excess demand of 610.8 m^3 of wood for drum making. The excess demand

against a low annual allowable cut coupled with a history of heavy exploitation

and poor recruitment pattern clearly do not make drum making a viable

enterprise for meeting the market demand in the medium to long term unless

on-farm tree planting of the desired species is promoted to supply the wood.

Trees were already being harvested from the edges of Mpanga forest reserve.

If this trend continues, the conservation of Mpanga forest, which is being

facilitated by development of ecotourism, may be jeopardised because of the

adverse impacts of tree harvesting on bird and primate populations that are

potential ecotourist attractions.

Production, trade and marketing

Drum production in Mpigi district started as early as the nineteenth century,

although trade increased to current levels about 30 years ago (Samula 2001).

Carvers market their products by the roadside, where they are displayed or sold

in bulk to outlets in the city centre and then sold to tourists and other buyers.

Unlike farmers and other traders who market products through a co-operative

movement, drum makers and traders do not have such a body. The small size of

the industry and lack of a market information system have constrained the

growth of the drum making industry, which can be described as ‘stall’, ‘home

based’ or ‘roadside’ trade. Moreover, it is difficult to draw a clear line between

drum makers (producers) and drum traders because the business is holistic in

nature. The production–marketing chain is therefore summarised in Figure 2.

Policy issues, support and interventions in drum making industry

There is no policy on production and marketing of wooden drums in Uganda.

Any policy aimed at promoting woodcarving in Uganda would depend on the

interrelation between production and marketing. As such, there is a need for

both supply and demand oriented policies and strategies. There is also a need

to guide the interrelationships among culture, crafts, tourism, handicrafts

and natural resources used in the woodcarving industry. Where possible,

policies, plans and programs should be formulated to address the needs of

specific crafts subsectors and geographic areas.

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