Biomass is a diverse resource and is easy to harness because unlike some other forms of renewable energy it is not site specific. Fortunately, Uganda has a comparative advantage in harnessing this resource because the soils and climatic conditions provide excellent growth conditions.

Planning for biomass is therefore critical for the social economic development of Uganda. Biomass is used in all sectors of the economy, and more importantly, close to 100% of rural households and 98% of urban households use biomass energy for cooking.

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development (MEMD) with support from UNDP thus saw it fit to launch the Biomass Energy Strategy for Uganda (BEST).This is in line with development strategy as stated in the Vision 2040, “A Transformed Ugandan Society from a Peasant to a Modern and Prosperous Country within 30 years.”

The ultimate aim of the Biomass Energy Strategy (BEST) 2013 is to propose rational and implementable approaches to manage the biomass energy sector. The process was highly participatory and systematic whereby the biomass energy sector situation analysis was presented to a wide range of stakeholders (users of biomass, traders, producers, natural resource managers and more importantly, policy makers) in order to generate discussions and debate and ultimately build consensus on better management of the biomass energy resource.