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By Janeth Fridah
KOBOKO: Wednesday, February 26, 2025
In an effort to save the environment from degradation, women in lobule Sub County in Koboko district have embarked on tree planting.
Shifa Salama, a member of the host community in Lobule, said that they formed an association of over 84 women -both refugees and host community members- who agreed that issues of environmental restoration and preservation of natural resources need to be collectively handled.
On ten acres of land and with additional support from the development response to displacement impact program (DRDIP), they have worked to make their mark, planting over 20 thousand trees on ten acres.
Their plantation is growing and together with other environmentally friendly practices such as the making and use of briquettes and energy saving stoves have put the members of this community on an irreversible mission towards environmental conservation.
While the project has yielded fruits of a fast-growing forest, the group embarked on beekeeping, but their hives were stolen by thieves taking advantage of the project being located far from the home.
Why this needs to be addressed.
Salama acknowledged that welcoming the refugees into the region has brought for them this benefit of tree planting through DRDIP.
Faida Harriet who hails from the host community commends DRDIP for the project that has connected them to be united.
Through DRDIP, they obtained the seedlings that were planted in a 10-acre land to help them with alternative sources of fuel, building materials and for business.
Candiru Christine, a refugee from the camp comments that the trees they have planted will help them and their children in future to harvest a lot of money.
Some of the tree species that the group planted include eucalyptus trees, pine trees, and gemalena (white oak).
Candiru said of the weather changes that some of the trees were planted during the rainy season which made them grow faster but later when the dry season came, most of the trees could not hold their growth. This, she said, has led to drying up of some of the trees.
Stella Kumbuka, a host community, is overwhelmed by the first beautiful scenery created by the plantation.
Similarly, Helen Wilaru highlights some of the challenges they have realized from this project.
Helen noted that there is a lot of theft in the area which have led to loss of some of the trees.
She promised to rewrite another project to lobby for more seedlings to refill the stolen trees.
Whereas the women’s overall enthusiasm is driven by the desire to create their own source of fuel and commercial wood products, trees play an important role in regulating the local environment as a carbon sink, thereby removing harmful greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
In this regard, the Development Response to Displacement Impact Project, a World Bank funded Project through Investment Project Financing-IDA Loan to the Government of Uganda of about US$50 Million and implemented by the office of the Prime Minister has come in handy to boost the women’s efforts.
The production of this story was supported by InfoNile in Partnership with Palladium under the Climate Smart Reporting Project.
