Okidi standing in the middle of the nursery bed established by district and Kijani. Photos by Arnest Tumwesige
By Arnest Tumwesige
Agago: Tony Otto Okwinya a resident of Arum sub-county is one of the elders in Agago who is still passionate about protecting the environment despite his old age.
Okwinya’s love for the environment dates back to when he was still young, and the same level of love for the environment has pushed the 77-year-old from Kazikazi parish to Agago district headquarters to collect free seedlings being distributed by the district in partnership with Kijani Forestry.
When the district sent out a call to interested people in prepared gardens to pick seedlings in September last year, Okwinya received 700 seedlings for planting.
Unfortunately, due to the prolonged dry weather spell, almost all he planted had dried. Despite the setback, he has not given up on tree planting.
By the time GNNA visited the district headquarters in April this year, Okwinya had again come to pick more than 100 seedlings from the district nursery bed. He plans to plant over 1,000.
Night Akello, a resident of Lukole town council in Agago, is also happy that the challenge of accessing tree seedlings for planting is being addressed.
“People were asking where to get seedlings from and it was tough. I wanted to start planting three years ago, but the district could not have enough for the few individuals who wanted,” Akello told GNNA.
Akello, however, wants the district, with the help of Kijani and other partners to help deliver the seedlings to distant communities.
Entering into partnership
As Agago district still pondered how to fix the seedling puzzle, an opportunity struck in 2022 when Kijani expressed interest in creating a Public Private Partnership.
John Okidi, the district forest officer, said the district had limited funds to meet the community’s demand.
Since the signing of the partnership, Kijani is now been working with community groups in eight sub-counties where they have established tree seedlings for free distribution supported by a backup nursery bed established in the district.
“We want to encourage community groups formed based on different objectives like Village Saving and Loan Associations, local dance groups, and others to come and pick the seedlings for planting,” Okidi told GNNA.
Last year, the district distributed about one million seedlings to farmers. Out of these, Kijani in partnership contributed over 800,000. The rest were donations from Members of Parliament and NGOs.
Challenges facing the project
Agago district has 26 lower local governments, making it very expensive for technical officers like Okidi to monitor the planting process. However, he said before farmers are given the seedlings, they are trained on-site on the basic practices.
Relatedly, Okidi noted the long distance for farmers to travel to the district, especially the elderly who want to plant but cannot afford it.
Equally, the kind of seed varieties available do not address the community’s demands. For instance, farmers are interested in eucalyptus clones, which the district does not have. Others are pines and fruit trees, which will be provided this year.
Encroachment on reserves
Agago has three Central Forest Reserves under the National Forest Authority. These are Napono in Lapono sub-county, Parabongo in Kalongo town council and Ogile Central Forest Reserve.
However, one of the biggest challenges is the unclear boundaries which have attracted severe encroachment since they were surveyed back in the 1940s.
“There are people who, because of ignorance, might [not] know the importance of a forest reserve, and would want to do anything and there are others who know what to do and go through the proper procedures,” the DFO explained why there is high encroachment.
Similar initiatives
Early April this year, Community Road Empowerment (CORE), is a Non-Governmental Organization funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Government of Japan launched a campaign to plant over 40,000 trees in Gulu district.
Priscilla Kugonza, the Project Environmentalist at CORE, said over the year from May 2023, the organization had planted over 21, 000 seedlings in 10 hectares on government land in Gulu district, with the support of Kijani Forestry and 9.5 hectares of trees on land belonging to 15 farmers in Awach and Paibona sub-counties.
Among the fruit trees planted are jackfruits, oranges, guavas, and lemons, while the timber and wood trees planted include; musisi, acacia, mahogany, melanie, pines, teaks, and eucalyptus among others and a similar project is ongoing in Kitgum district as well.
In August last year, Denis Emmanuel Okwera told URN that Kijani would work with Agago for 10 years from 2022 to plant 10 million tree seedlings.
Okwera, the northern region coordinator at Kijani Forestry, advised those interested in the reforestation project to take it as a long-term investment that will save the environment, clean the air, provide rain, and have more social and economic impacts.
