One World Tree Planting

The Go Green Campaign

Launched as of August 2021, the Go Green Campaign an environmental conservation campaign aimed at conserving the environment through tree planting activities under the model farmer approach.

As of September 2022, the campaign was able to plant 41,623 trees in and around West Nile Region.

The model farmer approach made the campaign a success as the selected farmers were able to offer their land for planting the trees and become model farmers practicing agro forestry.

The model farmers were therefore focused as the propagators to the communities they lived in were they are to model community members to impress agro forestry as a core to climate change.

Based on the July 2022 field monitoring report, the trees planted by the model farmers had established well in the field though some few refiling needed to be done upon which we have been communicating to the model farmers for more planting plans (See Monitoring photo files for the pictures).

With the funding received from One World Tree Planting and kind support from partners in Uganda ranging from Dan Church Aid (DCA) West Nile Office, Feminature Uganda and government institution of Uganda National Forest Authority, the campaign was able to be a success and still continues to yield more results.

The Youth Empowerment through Agriculture – YEA Project:

As a follow up to the Go Green project, the YEA project concept was develop to actualize the field based reports and findings of the model farmers who had become the true propagators of the project ideas.

YEA looked much into how the Model farmers could be full scale agro forester. Based on the need to expand the direct project reach, the project aimed at forming farmer groups as the main drive for the project idea.

The groups were to be spear headed by the model farmers as such, the project was able to engage four farmer groups during its pilot stage as of October 2021. With kind support from Preet foundation, we were able to receive kind donation of Okra Seedlings and supplied to the model farmers and the groups they had formed so as to be agro foresters (Growing Trees alongside okra).

With blessings from One World Tree Planting as of August 2022, The YEA project graduated from a pilot phase to full implementation were Global Peace Chain Uganda now intends to directly inject a seed funding to the Farmer groups so as to turn them into a farmer saving groups were they can have financial access to accomplish farming plans hence a model of community development and a sustainable project model.

We intend partner with financial institutions and engage other local partner to have trainings and empower empowerment to the farmer groups.

Peace by Climate Action Award – Turkey
Based on the success of the Go Green Campaign, Global Peace Chain Uganda was recognized internationally as promoter of peace through climate action at the International Youth World Cup on SDG’s – an event organized by Global Peace Chain international and MAPs.

GPC Country Director was awarded as the overall first run up worldwide and continental winner of Peace by Climate Action category.

Support to the Innovation Hub (Host Hub)
With support Kind to the Host Hub, Global Peace Chain Uganda was able to achieve more in the area of innovation as the Hub was able to implement community based Tech for Tourism Exploration project which later on won a mini grant from Agar khan Foundation under the Covid Recovery Grand Scheme funded by European Union.

The Youth Empowerment through Agriculture – YEA project of Global Peace Chain Uganda Chapter finally gets blessed as the pilot phase gives birth to the full implementation as of 21st July 2022.

This is after One World Tree Planting – an Organization Based in Belgium – finally confirms its funding from the Fourth Pillar of Citizen Initiatives for Development Aid for the full-scale implementation of the project in West Nile.

The Youth Empowerment through Agriculture – YEA project took shape as a pilot project of GPC Uganda as of September 2021.

Under our previous campaigns such as Go Green Campaign, Global Peace Chain Uganda had planted over 41,000 trees across West Nile under the model farmer approach. Through the YEA Project, we intend to turn the model farmers in to agroforesters: growing of trees alongside crops on the same piece of land – a form of land management system.

With focus on livelihood restoration of the youth and a linked project to the August 2021 Go Green Campaign of GPC, the YEA Project as in the pilot phase had engaged farmer groups in Okra growing. However, based on the reports of the pilot phase, The GPC Team has finally agreed on the recommendations of the farmer groups and perfected this in the full phase implementation that our committed donor has accepted and confirmed to fund.

We therefore intend to engage more farmers in tree planting and become models in their community as well as grow food crops to boast their income levels hence a livelihood restoration approach.

With focus on livelihood restoration of the youth and a linked project to the August 2021 Go Green Campaign of GPC, the YEA Project as in the pilot phase had engaged farmer groups in Okra growing. Based on the reports of the pilot phase, The GPC Team has finally agreed on the recommendations of the farmer groups and perfected this in the full phase implementation that our committed donor has accepted and confirmed to fund.

This program is set to work with four farmer groups in West Nile based in Arua City and Maracha district. Whereas in Arua, Sinamakosa Farmer Group of Andelizua Village together with Onivu Farmer Group are set to benefit from this project based on the previous success in the Pilot project.

Meanwhile from Maracha, Aviayo farmer group shall be one of the beneficiary based on the previous engagement GPC had with the groups

With a funding sealing cap, the project aims to train the farmers on financial literacy, specific and tailored trainings on growing on of the selected crops the groups have identified and provide a seed capital fund to each group’s Savings and Credit (SACCO).

This financial support puts in motion the financial access that the groups had pointed as core to challenges facing their ability to engage in farming. This project therefore affirms Global Peace Chains efforts of Livelihood restoration in Uganda through its West Nile based projects.

As a refugee-hosting district, GPC Uganda looms its project activities in West Nile with core focus on livelihood restoration for development. We are grateful to our committed donors (One World Tree Planting, the Fourth Pillar and Klimaatdichters) among other local partners and donors such as DCA, NFA and Host Hub for continuously supporting us.

Global Peace Chain Uganda is a youth led organization working in Uganda and an affiliate to the Global Peace Chain International.

It was a little longer than a year ago that I met Aldo online. In fact, I contacted him. The reason was that some guy wanted to cooperate with One World Tree Planting to initiate a restoration project focusing on the wetlands in Uganda. After some research I found out that this person pretended to be the Country Director of Global Peace Chain Uganda. A little review on the international website of Global Peace Chain that he was not, but Aldo was. That why I contacted Aldo to warn him that someone was trying to act like him.

As we chatted, Aldo told me about the Go Green Campaign and the awareness actions that he had set up in collaboration with Radio Pacis and other partners. In this new phase of the campaign Aldo and Programme Director Bob Bayou want to proceed with educating young farmers about agroforestry as a way to adapt to climate change and restore biodiversity.

One World Tree Planting was very inspired by the motivation and expertise of GPC team to set up projects that really helps smallholder farmers in ensuring their yields in a situation of longer droughts and freak weather events causing floods and damages to the fielding.

The climate crisis has been preceded by another crisis instigated by the so called Green Revolution, convincing farmers to leave old ways based on mixed cropping, rotation and seed diversity towards a highly intensive monocropping with high yielding crop varieties requiring tons on pesticides and chemical fertilizers. This exhausts soils and leaves fields unprotected to drought and floods.

By planting trees on the fields and training these farmers with the Forest Garden approach we hope that farmers will generate higher yields and income throughout the year while replenishing the soils by capturing water and moving forward towards greater biodiversity.

As a small association that believes in a peer-to-peer approach to support climate activists and their small climate adaptation projects, we’ve supported projects in Uganda and in India. We focus on the youth because they are the future  and can inspire local communities and policy makers to build a sustainable future.

Given the situation of the West Nile region that is growing in population and hosts large refugee communities from neighbouring countries the abundance that agroforestry can generate is one of the best ways to keep and strengthen peace among communities.

That’s why I sincerely hope that Aldo will win the award of “Peace by Climate Action” handed out by the international Global Peace Chain network so that he and his team can spread the message by example and inspire young activists globally.

Our support could not have been possible without the Klimaatdichters (Climate Poets) from Belgium and the Netherlands who published a wonderful poetry book “Swimming Classes for Later” from which the revenues go to the Go Green Campaign.

I want to introduce Willemijn Kranendonk from the Klimaatdichters who will perform an English interpretation of a poem written by founder and climate poet Moya De Feyter:

“I

I am a fish inside

the only fish in the world

that can’t swim

the moray opens and shuts its mouth

no one can hear it

the surface of the water is covered with motionless belugas

a sad octopus, partly buried

stared too long at the screen

come on, take a selfie with a shark!

we find the red perch charming

imagine being born in a fish bowl

because they have an inefficient swimming stroke

in an aquarium in a big city

every day thousands of people come to look at you

sometimes someone taps on the glass”

(Translated by Paul Vincent)

Thank you!

By Bayo Bob

August 1st 2021 will be a historic day for Global Peace Chain Uganda Chapter!On that day, we shall officially launch the first phase of our flagship programme, the Go Green Campaign through which we hope to do our part to make the environment greener and positively impact lives along the way.

Here is a quick look on the road ahead!

In phase one of the Go Green Campaign, we shall work with twenty model farmers and train them to become Trainers of Trainers (ToTs). In this way, our work will have a ripple effect. We shall work with the model farmers from start to finish. Global Peace Chain Uganda Chapter will provide seeds, and together with the model farmers, we will set up nursery beds, transplant the seedlings, provide expert guidance along the way and train the farmers in produce marketing. The farmers have a say in which trees they want to plant in their gardens. Involving the model farmers in all the stages will lead to the development of a sense of ownership over the project thus endearing it to them. We know that people are likely to guard something they have toiled for more than that which just drops out of the blue.

The beauty of this approach is that we are able to protect the environment while touching lives positively since the farmers learn valuable skills and improve their agricultural productivity through following the Trees of the Future’s Forest Garden approach that we intend to introduce them to.

One powerful way of making a lasting impact is often to work with the younger people and instilling the values that uphold in them along the way. This project is not an exception. Sadly, this could not be the case in phase one because of the public health situation that the country is in the middle of right now thanks to the Coronavirus. The best place to find and work with these young and energetic people is their schools but since schools are currently closed, we can only hope that times get better and by the time phase two starts in July 2022, schools are up and running. Then, students will be key actors in phase two.

But, there is good news! In the interest of those with whom we are unable to work together on a practical level, we are going to have extensive media campaigns on social media, radio and television. In this manner, such people will benefit immensely from our climate education programmes on those readily accessible platforms.

Before I pen off, a quick reminder on why we are doing this now. Climate change threatens to be the next global catastrophe. As global temperatures rise and rainfall patterns become nearly unpredictable and clean and open water sources dry up.

Farmers are caught up in the middle of a crisis that they have done very little to perpetuate but bear the brunt of and crops dry up and this, by extension, affects even those who are not farmers themselves because the scarce food items in the market become expensive so people eat much less than is required and next up, we have a malnutrition crisis on our hands to grapple with. This is just one of the many directions in which the huge tree can fall after being cut. It is mind boggling how closely intertwined aspects of the climate are with the more common aspects of our day-to-day lives. At Global Peace Chain Uganda Chapter, we do not want to commit the evil of being the passive bystander. Instead, we are proud to be active up standers.

I continue to thank those who have contributed to this project and those whose support is going to enable this project to run smoothly to name but a few, Mrs. Mary Paradise Moore, Mr. Herman De Greve of One World Tree Planting, Mrs. Tara Connor, The Klimaatdichters of Belgium, the entire GPC Uganda community and the media houses especially those in West Nile.Indeed, without your selfless support, this project would have remained one in name only and forever flat footed.

For now, we’re off to the field!

Bayo Bob is the Director of Programs and Projects at the Global Peace Chain Uganda Chapter and the Program Manager of the Go Green Campaign.

Thanks to the Belgian Fourth Pillar for Citizen Initiatives for Development Cooperation and the Province of Antwerp, One World Tree Planting was able to obtain a grant to support Asiimwe Mourine in her project to plant trees and organize sensitization activities with the Batwa communities.

The Batwa are different groups of indigenous forest dwellers who were original to the impenetrable Bwindi forest. The forest is known worldwide because of it’s population of gorillas.

Due to conservation efforts, these original hunters-gatherers were expelled from the forest, leaving them at the margins of society.

Change A life Bwindi is a Community Based Organisation which was started to directly link the importance of preserving Bwindi National Park as a source of livelihood for the surrounding Batwa communities through sustainable projects such as afforestation, bee keeping, mushroom growing and women empowerment.

With support from One World Tree Planting, Miss Conservation Kigezi Asiimwe Mourine purchased tree seedlings and transported them from Kabale to the Change A life Bwindi centre of operation in Ruhaija for her first activity on December 14th.

The activity started with a sensitization talk with with project members to outline the activity:

1. explaining steps taken when planting a tree, caring for a newly planted tree;
2. revealing to them the real climate change effects that we are facing now and how a planted tree will help to mitigate these challenges.

Also other benefits of planting were explained:

1. planting indigenous trees contributes to restoration of Uganda’s ecosystem;
2. protection of biodiversity;
3. provision of fruits that can be consumed by the family;
4. …and sold as source of income;

This training session was followed by a practical demonstration on how a tree is planted with members at Change A life Bwindi centre before seedlings were distributed to participants and to be planted at the project centre.

Change A life Bwindi believes in the power of the young generation to be the future conservation warriors and this can start with planting a simple tree.

In this, they emphasised on having each of their children to plant trees in his or her name, and then care for and them.

They have been involving these children in various environmental conservation activities and they were very happy to receive these tree seedlings for them.

With the grant Asiimwe will continue with supervision and follow up activities focused on the implementation of agroforestry practices and knowledge exchange with the Batwa communities.

As a young girl 23 year old Miss Conservation Asiimwe Mourine was already aware of the importance of nature.