<p>In Uganda, landslides have tragically killed over 1,000 people, devastated crops, and forced people to vacate their ancestral land. Entire communities are at risk of disappearing. Without urgent help, more lives will be lost, and the land will never recover.</p>
<p>In the shadows of Mt Elgon National Park, many farmers believed they must choose between trees and crops. Fearing trees as space-hungry competitors, they cleared them to grow food. This led to loss of biodiversity, soil erosion, and deadly landslides, claiming over 1,000 lives.</p>
<p>To address this, Bees and Trees, a youth-led social enterprise started motivating smallholder farmers to restore degraded land through incentives. They gift beehives and coffee seedlings to farmers. This motivates the farmers to plant coffee shade trees and bee forage species, integrating trees into their farms. The trees contribute to land and habitat restoration, mitigate climate change and prevent landslides.</p>
<p>At the same time, honey and coffee sales provide additional income to the farmers, while the bees enhance food production and biodiversity through pollination.</p>
<p>The social enterprise also purchases coffee grown under agroforestry at premium prices, further motivating farmers to integrate and preserve trees on their farms. Learn more in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RUeBGlPlWA">this DW documentary</a>.</p>