By Cathy Watson | Senior Advisor, ICRAF
It is totally heartbreaking but today we will officially close our account on GlobalGiving for this project -- "Agroforestry with Refugees and Hosts in NW Uganda". Time is up. Our boots are no longer on the ground in Imvepi and Rhino Camp Refugee Settlements.
But what are on the ground and in the ground, however, are many tens if not hundreds of thousands of trees that you funded. Very many of these will continue growing, permanently providing shade for refugees and nationals, habitat for birds, insects and small mammals, cooler air for those in their shade, carbon for the soil, fruit and other types of food, medicine, a barrier to wind, and much more. With trees, we and you have made a permanent impact for the better for many people.
We have also helped change and shape thinking. At our project close out meeting on 8 December in Kampala, Andrew Harper, the Special Advisor on Climate Action to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said: “What you are presenting is just so important because it is science backed up with community consultations and knowledge.”
Online from Geneva, he also said: “We need to incorporate nature as a stabilizing force in the humanitarian response. Human security is based on protecting the environment.”
“Refugees are located in landscapes highly vulnerable to climate change,” said senior in-country UNHCR official Aman Aligo in his opening remarks. “Agroforestry can counter the extreme heat refugees are experiencing and bring fuel closer to households thereby reducing gender-based violence”.
“Planting for firewood is already avoided deforestation,” said Uganda’s Assistant Commissioner for Forestry, Water and Environment Issa Katwesige in his statement.
“ICRAF raised 700,000 seedlings for refugees and hosts to plant,” said Martin Naburri Koriang, the Assistant Settlement Commandant and and focal person for livelihoods and environment in Imvepi Refugee Settlement, on behalf of the Office of the Prime Minister.
I pesonally blanche at the thought that we gave out neem, a very popular tree with refugees, hosts and foresters but which can be "expansive" if not "invasive". We really stuck out our necks (as we should have) for indigenous species. Thanks to us and you, there will always be schools in our refugee settlements that have access to the fruit of Vitex doniana (Odogo in Lugbara, the local Ugandan language). We valorised such nutritious but neglected and taken for granted species, even if we could have done more.
We leave behind many women who do not need to trek quite as often into the bush or onto uncultivated or fallow land for firewood because they have some growing at home.
And we leave behind at least a dozen people who worked for us in the field, gaining much needed income and work experience that they have leveraged for new jobs. We leave behind one PhD, one almost completed PhD, a ream of academic papers, and two solid reports that you can access here:
https://www.cifor-icraf.org/publications/pdf/reports/Evaluative-report-Uganda.pdf
https://www.cifor-icraf.org/publications/pdf/reports/Uganda-Tree-Report.pdf
We say thank you, thank you, thank you. And we say please don't lose touch. My email is cathyhwatson@gmail.com We are cooking other projects. And we have your emails too. It has been an incredible collaboration. So no tears, just happiness about what we all achieved. We have enjoyed every moment on this project for people and planet. And of course, we feel determination. More is coming.
Links:
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