What is the secret behind rising forest cover?

Trees help to fight climate change, loss of biodiversity and poverty. However, tree growing among smallholder farmers in Uganda has picked up, but not to the required level. But what could be the game changer?

A pilot intervention in West Nile and within the Mt Elgon area has provided some answers, Gerald Tenywa writes.

We are engulfed by heat, as the Toyota Super Custom conquers the 69km journey between Arua and Terego district in West Nile. As we move deeper into Terego district, my guide declares: “We have reached Awahill.”

The small village shares a bitter reality with the rest of the water-starved areas. It is part of the dry land belt in Uganda that straddles into parts of South Sudan.

This is where Natal Itirima has planted indigenous and exotic trees on an expansive piece of land and is expecting handsome returns.

His plantation has more than 30,000 trees of different species, including the fast-growing species of teak, which towers over him. This promises to become an “oasis” in Terego, which is scantily covered with trees.

“The tree cover shelters this place from the harsh weather conditions in the dry season,” Itirima says, adding that his dream of restoring the environment and making money from trees is still alive.

About 200km away, Wilfred Warom, a resident of Atyak in Zombo district, is inter-cropping trees with cassava and groundnuts.

“I have planted trees to help me in the future and I hope to earn good money from them,” Warom says.

A similar scenario also plays out in the Mt. Elgon region in eastern Uganda. Peter Biiyi, a resident of Kisira village, Lusha sub-county, in Bulambuli district knows that trees shield the land from the erosive water and also nourish the soil, which feeds him and his family.

The trees are helping to change Mt. Elgon, which is branded as “a place of landslides and floods.”

The three tree farmers from different parts of the country have one thing in common — they are smallholder tree farmers practicing tree growing as opposed to tree planting.

 Tree growing

Tree growing is where farmers take care of tree seedlings, provide water or watering, thinning and spraying pests on the trees, while for tree planting, farmers plant trees and do not take care of them.

Under tree growing, farmers care about the quality of seedlings, carry out weeding, pruning to remove the excess branches and thinning to allow space for the trees to grow together with crops. In some cases, they have fought off pests afflicting the trees.

This is part of the fruits of a two-year pilot project initiated and executed by the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) and their partners in West Nile and Mt. Elgon areas. The local partners include Muni University in Arua.

According to Clement Okia, an associate professor of agroforestry at Muni University, the pilot is set to provide incentives to households to support the restoration of the environment.

Okia works with Muni University’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources and deputy director, of graduate training, research, and innovation.

The pilot project started in 2022 and is ending this year, Okia pointed out, adding that incentives go beyond the high-quality seedlings, which motivated farmers to look after the trees.

“The incentives that have been passed over to the tree farmers are under what is referred to as the performance-based contracts. These contracts refer to a reward after the accomplishment of a certain specific and agreed task. In this case, the farmers have been provided with either money or inputs equivalent to sh150,000,” Okia reveals.

In addition, the farmers were skilled in identifying and looking after trees growing naturally, a practice referred to as farmer-managed natural regeneration.

As a result, most of the trees planted two years ago have an average height of two-and-a-half metres, according to an assessment undertaken by the promoters of the pilot.

“The survival rate of the trees planted with incentives is between 70% and 80%,” Okia says, adding that this doubles the survival rates of trees planted by other partners without incentives.

Peter Biiyi a resident of Kisira village in Lusha sub country, Bulambuli district in the middle of his garden of Coffee, bananas and trees in the neighborhood of Mt. Elgon National Park. (Credit: Gerald Tenywa)

Environmental restoration

In the process, these efforts help to fight climate change and preserve the environment.
Climate change is a long-term shift in the average weather patterns, according to the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Human activities are reported to accelerate the rate of climate change. This results in erratic rainfalls, frequent and intense floods and droughts.

As communities grow trees, they are creating a local and global impact. Apart from the expected commercial benefits, trees absorb waste gases, remove and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere which causes the global climate change crisis.

In addition, trees contribute to increased biological diversity, also referred to as biodiversity.

“The growing of indigenous trees creates habitats for wildlife,” Godfrey Natwaluma, the National Coordinator of Trees on Farm for Biodiversity project under the CIFOR-ICRAF partnership, says adding that it increases species diversity.

After suffering from decades of destruction of the environment, there is a need to restore the environment to assist the ecological system in recovery.

For three decades, Uganda’s forest cover declined from 24% in the 1990s to only 10% in 2015, according to a report from the European Union. The report points out that if the trend of destruction continues, Uganda could have no forests by 2040.

However, Uganda is undertaking restoration efforts, including the Bonn Challenge and the planting of the 40 million trees campaign, also referred to as Running Out of Trees (ROOTS).

Under the Bonn Challenge, Uganda committed to the restoration of forests, as well as agricultural landscapes, amounting to 2.5 million hectares of degraded landscapes by 2030.

The Government has been implementing the National Development Plan III, which was supposed to increase the forest cover from 10% to 15%. Forest cover has increased from 10% in 2015 to 13% currently.

However, most of the increased forest cover is in plantations in central and western Uganda. This means that smaller farmers, such as Itirima in West Nile, still need another arrangement to promote tree growing outside the plantations.

“We are looking at mixing tree species with crops on the agricultural landscape,” Natwaluma says, adding: “Initially, most people were not aware and had fears that trees would take up land for crops. We are now looking at increased awareness.”

 What next?

What the CFOR-ICRAF support has proved is that incentives promote land restoration and social impacts.

This should be sustained and scaled up.

Hellen Madanda, the Bulambuli district natural resources officer, said: “We are going to promote agroforestry through other existing initiatives.”

As a result, Muni University’s Okia noted that they want to pass on information to institutions; including non-governmental organisations and the Government to know that farmers are not just beneficiaries, but stakeholders in land restoration and biodiversity conservation.

As the Government and other actors mobilise funding for green investments, Okia advises that: “Incentives should provide environmental restoration and social outcomes.”

He says the National Forestry and Tree Planting Act provides for the national tree fund, but it was not operationalised.

Although the Government has provided the National Forestry Authority (NFA) with money to raise seedlings for community tree planting, there is no follow-up to monitor what survives.

“What we are saying is there must be a deliberate way to ensure that they survive and grow to serve the purpose,” Okia says.

A report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature shows that forest restoration requires a huge budget, to the extent that what goes into forestry, including the NFA, is a drop in the ocean.

There is need to explore more ways of scaling up tree growing among smallholder farmers, Okia says.