Climate Action Uganda Project #23727

Reforest native trees, empower women healers

by Wild Forests and Fauna

Project Report | Oct 1, 2018
Seedling Distribution Update

By Doug Sorin | WildFF Board Project Lead

Planting season is coming to an end, and our team is proud as it reflects on this year’s tree outreach program.

Through September, our Native Seeds Project team distributed over 33,000 seedlings to participating farmers in Gulu District: 20,150 through our extensive farmer outreach in Bungatira (with climate change resilience trainings) and 11,000 to farmers through partner organizations.

In addition, one Wise Women member planted 1.5 acres with 1,200 seedlings and another member received an 700 seedlings for her land. 15 women also participated in farmer trainings in Bungatira giving them the opportunity to make additional income through seedling outreach as Tree Planting Pioneers.

The second rainy season had scarce rains, which meant that distribution was slower than expected. Total seedlings produced in 2018 at our nurseries currently stands at 50,000.

With rains extremely erratic this year, more and more farmers are beginning to recognize the power of this project and its benefits for their land. In nearby Laroo division, the local government has expressed interest in contracting the team to plant seedlings after the dry season (March 2019). Our team is hoping to double our impact in 2019, producing and distributing 100,000 seedlings.

In the Palorinya Refugee Settlement, seedling distribution is still ongoing and we are currently on track to have distributed to nearly 20,000 refugee households in our 2018 outreach with the Moyo District Forest Office. The final figures will be available later this year as well as a proposal to scale refugee seedling distribution to the rest of the Palorinya Camp.

Over the next 18 months, our team is excited to increase its presence in Northern Uganda while transitioning the nursery to a financially sustainable social enterprise. Thank you for your support to date and hope you will continue to join us in this project!

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Jul 3, 2018
Project Report

By Georgia Beasley | Project Leader

Regreening Landscapes, One Farmer at a Time

Hey all,

It’s been a few months since our last project report. You might recall that in our most recent report, we were busy producing thousands of native tree seedlings in our tree nurseries in Northern Uganda. Since then, a lot has happened. Let me tell you about it.

In April, the rains arrived to Uganda, which means our field staff was busy visiting villages, conducting Climate Change Resiliency Trainings with small-scale farmers. The arrival of the rains in April also meant that it was time to get our native tree seedlings out to those that need them most: small-scale farmers fighting climate change. Over the course of the months of April and May, our team conducted 18 trainings in 9 villages in Bungatira Sub-county, a small area in Northern Uganda a little outside of Gulu. In these 9 villages, we are working closely with 400 farmers to train them in the importance of native trees to protect their soil fertility and how these native trees can protect them and their families in the face of growing climate uncertainty.

Over the course of these trainings, our dedicated team on the ground distributed 5,000 seedlings to the farmers with whom we are working. These seedlings are as varied as the croplands the farmers we work with tend to: from fast-growing timber species like African Mahogany to fruit trees like avocado and jackfruit to trees with potent medicinal properties like prunus africana, we are diversifying landscapes in ways that will provide tangible benefits to the people planting them.

And this is our ultimate goal. How can we better landscapes while also bettering the lives of the people that tend to those landscapes? Through planting useful tree species with small-scale farmers, we’re able to make soils healthier and landscapes greener, while also providing families with a greater variety of fruits, medicines, and increased access to important things like firewood.

But that’s not all. Aside from the 400 farmers we are working with directly, our nursery workers are busy producing seedlings for other organizations in the region that are doing similarly important work with farmers. In May, we got an additional 13,000 seedlings into the hands of 800+ farmers through formal partnerships with like-minded organizations. By using the networks and capacity with like-minded folks, we’re able to scale our impact and reach more farmers, more families, and more landscapes.

As we ring in the beginning of July, marking our half-way point of 2018, we continue with the same momentum. Rains take a pause in June in Uganda, but return in July. Our team just did their first distribution of the second rainy season three days ago, getting 999 seedlings out to thirty new farmers in Lagwiny village. For the next few weeks, working in rhythm with the rainy season, our team will be getting more seedlings to farmers across northern Uganda. Their ability to conduct this work is in thanks to people like you–people who believe in the importance of forests, the necessity to combat climate change, and the hope that it is still possible to make a change. So, thank you. I hope you continue to support this work, and know that you are making a difference because of it.

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With gratitude,

Georgia Beasley

Project Manager & Community Outreach Coordinator, Native Seeds Project, Uganda, WildFF | www.wildff.org

LEAF International Global Ambassador, LEAF Community Arts | www.theLEAF.org

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Apr 2, 2018
Farmers Fighting Climate Change

By Georgia Beasley | Project Leader

Julie talking about ecosystem with farmers

Over in Gulu, Uganda, our Native Seeds Project team has been hard at work these past few months. Let me give you a little context: in Northern Uganda, the dry season begins in December and normally lasts until the end of March. During this time, many trees are producing their seeds, making it the perfect opportunity to collect those seeds, dry them at the garden site, and plant them in the nursery. That’s what our team has been doing, day in and day out. With the help of an extensive network of farmers, elders, and other nature-loving folks across villages in the region, our team has been collecting hard to find seeds of trees that are rapidly disappearing. The fruits of their labor? There are currently nearly 30,000 seedlings planted in our tree nursery, and 20,000 more seeds ready to be planted in the coming months.

As these thousands of seeds grow into healthy seedlings ready for planting, our outreach team has been visiting villages throughout Bungatira sub-county, talking with them about the ways they can take climate change action into their own hands. We call these visits our “Climate Change Resiliency Trainings,” whereby our team covers topics ranging from ecosystem functions to how planting native trees can restore soil hydrology and protect crops from erratic weather patterns.

The result: farmers validated in their suspicions that there is a correlation between the rapid destruction of their forests and rains coming early, late, or not at all.

It is in these trainings that we begin to realize that climate change is just as much a matter of human rights as it is a matter of environmental well-being. While an abnormally warm winter intermittent with intense snow fall may just seem baffling in the US, overall it does not affect our day to day lives. Yet when the rains come late, as they did last year in Uganda, it is much more than just baffling: it is matter of a farmer being able to have a healthy harvest to put food on his or her table for the family. It is a matter of food security. It is a matter of whether you eat three meals a day or just one.

This is why equipping farmers with the ability to bring back their native trees is so important. Study after study shows that ample trees in a farmers’ landscape; 1) improves food and water security, 2) protects local biodiversity, 3) increases climate change resilience by expanding dry season farming, 4) combats desertification by improving soil fertility, and 5) reduces disaster risk, when adding fruit-bearing trees to a landscape.

As the rains come this April to Northern Uganda, we will begin distributing a vast mosaic of tree species to the farmers we work with. We will accompany them through the process over the next year of caring for these seedlings, ensuring that their roots grow firmly in the ground, so that these trees can provide the above services to farmers croplands.

We are appreciative of you for being on this journey with us. And for the farmers in Northern Uganda, please, take a moment to share this important work with a loved one, and let’s grow this project together.

Women farmers during training

Farmers in Pamin Onon Village!

Beyo tree seedlings in the nursery

The benefits of tree planting

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