Tree planting for afforestation, Forest Regeneration and Agroforestry is the flag-ship project of SWAGEN. Support for Women in Agriculture and Environment (SWAGEN) was conceived to respond to the challenges women were increasingly facing in their socially ascribed roles of fuel wood gathering, fetching water and providing food for their families, as well as taking care of the sick and elderly. Then the organization learnt that these activities had a name, “Adaptation”.
The organization has planted more than 2 million trees, 80% of which were indigenous species. The organization has established woodlots at household level to assist women have a source of building and fencing poles that is readily accessible and within a short and safe distance. Once this project was successful, the organization embarked on planting pasture trees and fruit trees to improve household nutrition and reduce the numbers of people suffering from nutritionally related illnesses. This had the added benefit of reducing the community women’s workload and free the girl-child to go to school.
The activities of the organization attracted the Uganda National Forest Authority (NFA) who were looking for partners among the forest- dependent / adjacent communities to enter into Collaborative Forest Management (CFM) agreement with. The forest-edge/adjacent community had traditionally depended on the forest for wild honey, medicinal herbs, handicraft raw materials, food such as tubers, mushrooms, and fruits. Gazetting of the forest had bred conflict between the community and the National Forest Authority (NFA).
Under the CFM agreement, the NFA committed to allocating land in the buffer zone to the community to carry out afforestation activities. SWAGEN obtained 65 Hectares on which was established 72,000 trees for carbon sequestration.
The tree planting project has improved the livelihoods of more than 30,000 people, alleviated poverty, enhanced household incomes, given women bargaining power.
SWAGEN is continuing to plant trees, the surest response to challenges posed by climate change! Planting trees has the spin-off benefit of working towards gender equality as it improves gender relations at household level, gives women access to forest resources, increases the decision making and bargaining power of women in households, and provides them with a fallback position. Join us!