In Uganda's Mt. Elgon region, deforestation and landslides have killed over 1,000 people in the last 10 years, devastated crops, and left families starving. Entire communities are at risk of disappearing. Without urgent help, more lives will be lost, and the land will never recover.
In this area, over 95% of the people depend on rain-fed agriculture, and farmers have long believed that trees are space-hungry competitors to their crops, and therefore cut down the trees to allow their crops to grow, leading to deforestation & unsustainable agricultural practices and causing serious biodiversity loss, soil degradation, landslides, and changes in the micro-climate.
Bees and Trees Uganda, a youth-led social enterprise that motivates small-holder farmers to restore their degraded land through beekeeping, planting of indigenous trees and coffee growing, incentivizes these smallholder farmers to reintegrate trees on their farms using agroforestry principles, and giving the farmers beehives, coffee seedlings & indigenous trees at no cost. We also plant fruits that contribute to food security and nutrition in the community.
The incentives for farmers are compelling; the flowers from the trees we plant nourish the bees, the bees generate honey and coffee that they sell to get additional revenue, a safety net during crop failure periods.
Our work contributes to mitigation of the rampant climate related disasters in this region like landslides and soil erosion. The reintroduction of trees leads to landscape restoration, fortifies on-farm biodiversity and improves soil fertility. The bees, nature’s tireless workers, contribute to food production and ecological balance
Bees and Trees Uganda has up to date given 120 modern beehives and 2000 coffee seedlings to the farmers. We have further planted 10,000 indigenous trees with the smallholder farmers.
However, Bees and Trees is a young organization that is still struggling to get funding to scale up our work. We are therefore seeking funding for our ambitious plan by November 2025 is to impact as many more families as possible. This includes;
To restore more 25 acres of land by planting 5,000 trees with the smallholder farmers in Bushika Sub-county, one of the most affected areas. This will increase land productivity by 50%
To provide more 300 beehives to the farmers. Beekeeping will increase farmer income by 50% by November 2025.
To provide 100,000 coffee seedlings to smallholder farmers by November 2025 this will enhance their incomes by 200% by November 2025
To increase awareness of 1000 households on sustainable land management by November 2025, which will reduce soil erosion by 70%.
Support a women’s group to establish a coffee and tree nursery to enhance their income opportunities. We will procure tree and coffee seedlings from the women’s group, thereby fostering economic independence. Additionally, they will have the opportunity to market their products to other community members, further strengthening their financial stability.
All this will increase on-farm biodiversity and re-green the landscape, mitigating landslides by 30% by 2030. This approach aligns with the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration as well as several SDGs.