Climate Action Uganda Project #36686

Agroforestry with refugees and hosts in NW Uganda

by International Centre for Research in Agroforestry

Project Report | Feb 7, 2022
Trees are going extinct because people have needs: "we are adding a brick"

By Cathy Watson | Chief of Partnerships

Mutegeki shows fruit from which seed can be taken

Happy 2022! We hope you are well. For our side, we are! The refugee project is bounding forward for many reasons but particularly thanks to a training on tree seed entirely paid for by you.

Coming none too soon, the training shifted our paradigm and is bringing new species into our nursery and leading to payments to community tree seed collector groups formed out of the training. This for us is win, win, win. We know it is for you too.

The participants were 24 refugees, farmers, NGO staff, and our own nursery workers and communility mobilisers. Our field manager, John Osidi opened the three day training by saying, "Let us not keep what we are learning in books. We are training you to replicate the knowledge and to be entrepreneurs - seed collectors. We can create green jobs and enhance household incomes."

We were privileged to have two lead trainers, both from hundreds of kilometers away. The National Forestry Authority’s Joseph Ochwo, said participants would "learn different methods of seed collection, what determines the method, how to extract different seeds, how to plan a collection, how to check seed quality, and how much seed to collect”.

The veteran forester, who has trained a generation of Ugandans in tree seed, added that “Some trees have seed that are challenging” and launched into terms like “orthodox” and “recalcitrant” seed -- seeds that do and don’t tolerate drying respectively -- which attendees grasped impressively fast.

In his introductory remarks, co-lead trainer Said Mutegeki, plant conservation officer from Tooro Botanical Garden, explained the “why” of the course.

“We want biodiversity maintained in the most stable way. Let’s have seed collector groups close to seed sources. Then they will start attaching value and not looking at native species as a nuisance.”

Mutegeki, who runs a nursery with over 120 species in Western Uganda, got straight into how to work with farmers who have trees that you need to collect from on their land.

"If you explain from the outset why you want to multiply it, most communities are friendly. Seek permission with polite and convincing words so there is no miscommunication, and talk about the goodness of trees.”

He added “And when you have indenitified potential seed sources, protect the area jealously. Someone may set fire to it.”

Expectations for the training were high. "We have come to learn how to build forest systems," said Moses Ebong from Danish Refugee Council. A woman farmer said tree cutting “had tampered with the weather” and asked the trainers to inspect fruit from her trees

Finally, following Ugandan protocol, forester Magnum Tabule from the district forestry office formally launched the workshop. "This training is core, and we have been vying for it for some time. Our nursery operators have been failing."

Dear supporters, let me assure you that our nursery has not been failing. It has led the way in Imvepi and Rhino Camp Refugee settlements in producing indigenous trees as well as useful exotics. But we knew we needed to do better.

For difficult to acquire species like Mvule, we have often sourced seed from the National Tree Seed Center, which typically collects it from outstanding Mvule trees distributed across Eastern Uganda. But what is the implication of carrying seed from eastern to northwestern Uganda? What might this do to our sub-population of this endangered stately hardwood?

Local collection is better. “We need to collect seeds from trees that are adapted to the local ecology,” stressed Ochwo. And preserving local genetic variety is key.

We have also been sourcing seeds for fruit like papaya and jackfruit from market ladies in Arua town. This we might continue. The seed likely comes from all over the district or even region from a large number of mother trees that have been selected for producing the juiciest and sweetest fruit.

But less positively we have been raising some tree species from seed collected from a very small number of mother trees. “Last year we raised all our Albizzia gummifera seedlings from the tree here at our learning center,” admitted one nursery worker.

All this is a thing of the past now. The trainers impressed upon us the need to collect from a multitude of mother trees to maintain and maximize genetic diversity.

Following a curriculum designed by Botanical Gardens Conservation International, which uses the Millennium Seed Bank standard, we were taught to collect from 50 mother trees spaced at least 100 meters apart for each species, and that we should collect no more than 20% of the seed from any one tree.

This is no small challenge. But in communications from the field this week, the team said it had been able to make collections from about 30 mother trees for some of our important species.

The training has paid us back in spades, not just on handling tree seed but also with its focus on growing a sizable range of “native” trees, something the team has struggled with at times.

Answering “Why should we plant native trees?” Mutegeki reeled off, “They are getting depleted, they withstand our soils, they are better adapted, and they have a longer life span than exotics. Also, for genetic pool, shade, and pest control. They support bats, beneficial insects and birds.”

Mutegeki and Ochwo were delighted just this week, when I told them that the team was now monitoring flowers on indigenous trees that would soon set fruit then seed. For the botanists among you, these include Ximenia americana, Sterculia africana, Prosopsis africana, Parinari excelsa, Kigelia africana, Carisa edulis, and the fruit-bearing liana Saba florida.

We really benefitted from this training, which included a day in the forest watching high tree climbing and seed collection from the canopy and pressing tree leaves. We were grateful for a chance to ask basic questions such as “Is it ok to pick seeds from the ground?” The answer from Joseph Ochwo was “ideally not”, because it can introduce seed-boring insects and mold.

In other sound advice, the forester said, "If nothing else, remember that dry seed is the key to good storage. Don't mix seed from different places. And deny the seeds light and moisture. Those things trigger germination”.

Mutegeki’s last words were “Trees are going extinct because people have needs. When we plant them, we are adding a brick”.

Thank you for your support. And if you have read this far, please consider becoming a monthly donor. We push on!

An NGO staffer inspects seed in training

Joseph Ochwo shows Albizzia seed

Proud farmer with her fruit

In the forest, high tree seed collection

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Oct 11, 2021
"In the right spot doing the right thing"

By Cathy Watson | Chief of Partnerships

Children watch their mother plant a jackfruit tree

Our last report was submitted on 22 June. Since then, Elise, our intern from Yale School of Forestry, has left, giving us invaluable advice. Young forester Osidi has joined, bringing new ideas like a living fence around our learning center. And our tree growing at school, health centers and other institutions has taken off.

Thank you for backing us to “wrap schools” in trees! Tree are associated with “better cognitive functioning and attention capacity” in pupils, says a report just out from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health

Elise was with us from 7 June to 28 July. “Overall, I really loved it,” she said. “We are in the right spot doing the right thing.”

We sensed from “overall”, however, that she had more to say, and knowing that she had majored in human centered design, we asked her to speak to the project in those terms.

“Human centered design has four steps,”said the Stanford graduate, “empathize, ideate, prototype, and iterate. We are doing well on empathizing and ideating, and less well on prototyping and iterating – which means looking at what you did and changing it.”

That feedback was not entirely unexpected. But, wow, it energized us, and we stepping uptoindeed prototype and ideate - define and refine our approach. Elise is helpingthere too by, among other things, drafting a document on “Best Practices for Implementing Tree-based Programs in Refugee Settlements”.

One of her recommendations is “establish regenerative norms and expectations from the outset”.

“People entering a new context, such as refugees settling in a new location, will adapt to the norms and expectations of that context. Establishing an early expectation that cut trees should be replaced can save a lot of work in generating buy-in later.”

Another is “Promote regenerative norms beyond tree planting. Reinforce ecological mindsets by exploring with refugees energy conservation, disposing of waste properly, keeping water sources clean, and protecting the life-giving capabilities of the natural environment.”

We will stay in close touch with Elise, and would like to see her back on the continent! Meanwhile, in 2022 we plan to host two further interns, one from the US and another from Europe. This time they will be matched with Ugandan masters’ students who we will support in their research.

Focusing still on people, we welcomed Osidi in August, a major addition to our team. Hired through a competitive process, he comes with a diploma in forestry, experience with Lutheran World Federation in Palabek Refugee Settlement, including mapping refugee plots, and is studying organic agriculture at university via distance learning.

He immediately took up distributing our seedlings to institutions, a priority that we pitched to you during the Climate Action Campaign.

"We are doing very good team work. In September we planted 450 trees in six schools and donated 8469 seedlings to Danish Refugee Council. Then in October we planted 1913 trees in 29 institutions. Overall, we have planted 10,842 trees in 27 schools, 19 churches, two health centers and one police post. We have identified so many places to plant.”

Osidi also leads the planting of an impenetrable hedge to keep roaming goats and pigs out of the nursery. It will look neat but consist of a tangle of tree and shrub species, some providing fruit. When we asked on Facebook how best to build it, we received 42 comments from permaculture and agroecology practitioners around East Africa. What a community!

“The fence is very important as an edge,” wrote James from Kenya.“It should be multifunctional, supplying needs for wild animals, birds and insects,domestic animals and humans.Plant as many diverse plants as possible. My living fence has Sesbania, Calliandria,mulberry,gooseberries,stinging nettle, and diverse indigenous trees, plants and shrubs.”

Finally, we are excited to host in November a training on tree seed collection, processing and banking that had been delayed by COVID. Day 4 looks particularly stupendous.It includes an 08:30 departure to a “nearby forest reserve for field practicals”.

The schedule then notes the “need for a Field Assistant/Forest Patrol man who knows the forest well and can track and guide to mother seed trees”. We will then learn “methods of collection, and a high tree climber will demonstrate high tree seed collectionwith safety precautions.”

In our next report we will give data on seedlings raised and planted in 2021, but the figures are already looking higher than in 2020. We have also rolled out new species of trees this year like the small fruit tree, Ziziphus, with its tangy delicious vitamin-rich berries.

Thank you so much for you support. Do look at the photos. We have done so much with your generous contributions.

Agroforest of banana, maize + indigenous Markhamia

Understanding better: Elise talks with refugees

Patrick packs indigenous fruit trees for schools

Just planted Vitex doniana looking healthy

Children not working but happy showing seedlings

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Jun 22, 2021
Pondering the best "dose" of trees so refugees can meet more of their needs

By Cathy Watson | Chief - Partnerships at CIFOR-ICRAF

Sorting seed in the learning center

From promoting new species, to building our team, to setting up a seed bank, to hosting an intern, this last quarter has been rewarding and fast-paced.

Our big news is that we are now on a much firmer footing. In April we had a hugely unexpected win. We placed an astounding first out of 118 projects in GlobalGiving's 2021 Climate Action Campaign. This ran for five days in April during which we hammered social media and stayed up sending out emails. We raised $15,653 from 80 donors. We are so grateful.

In the same quarter, we also received another generous gift from the family trust which donated in 2020. We thank all our old friends and new. Some of you must have seen our posts on Linkedin - the kindness and interest of strangers! We were chuffed too to receive donations from two NGOs, the awesome French Pur Project and the Indian social enterprise Grow-Trees.

We are estatic about our growth, and now on this solid footing, we are further raising our game.

In March-June, we started a seed bank. As soon as the strict lockdown in Uganda eases, we will host a training by Tooro Botanical Garden in seed collection, processing and storing. We have always collected and processed tree seed but usually planted most seed immediately. Now we are building a cadre of youth seed professionals, with an eye to their future employment in green jobs.

We are also becoming more botanical, adding species like Kigelia africana with its long pods, which grow to be signature trees on the landscape, retained by farmers and used largely for medicine in the case of the sausage tree. We will open this training to staff of other organizations. We do not want to be the only ones raising a multitude of tree species from great mother trees.

We reinforced our team. We now have six community-based facilitators. All are South Sudanese, two are women, one of whom is a trained midwife. We hope she will be able to build our narrative around the importance of food trees that provide leaves and fruit that are full of the micronutrients that prevent stunting and bolster the immune system.

Still on our human capital, Joel is now the new head of ICRAF in Uganda and full of energy and ideas. One of his first moves was to ship seeds of the woody shrub pigeonpea to the project. We retain the support of Clement, the previous head, who is now a professor at Muni University in nearby Arua town.

In March, Clement led a much appreciated training in farmer-managed natural regeneration for NGOs. Held at our learning center and in the bush around it, it was sorely needed, and an approach that we ourselves need to use more.

Finally, we received Elise from the Yale School of Forestry in early June. Our first intern ever, her first question was "what is the process for on boarding new households?" She had us at "what is the process". Indeed, what a good question!

She is living in the refugee settlement and is a daily presence at the learning center and nursery. Trained in human centered designed with a year's experience in refugee camps in Kenya, she is probing our theory of change, supporting the team and looking to document what we do.

We thank the Yale Macmillan Center Program on Refugees, Forced Displacement and Humanitarian Response for supporting Elise's travel and time with us.

Finally, we began a new push to grow trees around institutions. Since they are protected from fire and often fenced and therefore not grazed by livestock, we think this is a way to ensure trees remain on the landscape long after we and the refugees have gone. We have permission to plant around schools, child friendly spaces, playgrounds, early childhood development centers and health facilities.

To conclude, here is what it feels like on the ground. We drive along and spot a bed for sale made of poles in an area where "our" trees are clearly visible. We jump out and ask a young woman. Yes, it's made from trees that grew from seedlings we provided. Slam dunk!

We see 20 feet high Albizia trees, an indigenous nitrogen-fixing genus. "We planted those in 2018," says the community based facilitator. We speak to the head of the household. Eight people can sit under them. The ground is cool and shaded.

Some refugee compounds are pretty bare, however - sometimes because we've not yet worked there, sometimes because trees we provided have been coppiced for poles. The latter is a win because a pole sells for 5000 shillings ($1.50), a goodly sum for families. But the ground is hot, and soil is eroding away.

Back in the pickup, we wonder - how do you balance trees for livelihoods and trees for soil and water conservation? What is the dosage of trees a family needs to meet its needs?

We want to help to embed tree-based solutions in the humanitarian response, stimulate the uptake of trees by refugees and nationals, and formalize our processes so that others can replicate them in Uganda and beyond. That is what we are working towards. Thank you for supporting our work!

Kigelia africana on farm in refugee area

The seed team holds pods of sausage tree

Made from "ICRAF" trees, a bed and chair for sale

Planted 2018, an Albizia shades homes of refugees

Pigeonpea greens a home fast, gives food + fodder

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