Some 65 kilometers north of the Ugandan capital Kampala, a lush green bamboo forest, it’s the brainchild of former journalist-turned farmer, Andrew Ndawula Kalema.<\/p>\n
Kalema switched from journalism to bamboo farming in order to contribute to the reversal of environmental damage being seen in the East African country.<\/p>\n
In 2010, Uganda had 6.93 million hectares of tree cover, extending over 29% of its land area.<\/p>\n
In 2021, it lost 49,000 hectares of tree cover, equivalent to 23.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the East African country<\/a> has lost over a million hectares of tree cover, nearly a third of the country\u2019s total.<\/p>\n With Uganda losing hundreds of hectares of forest cover<\/a> due to population pressure and illegal logging, both public and individual efforts have become key to restoring degraded land.<\/p>\n Ndawula Kalema says bamboo, which is fast-growing and can adapt to different weather conditions, is key to mitigating the effects of climate change<\/a> in Uganda.<\/p>\n \u201cIt can do the job of restoring<\/a> our environment much faster. It can absorb 30% more carbon dioxide and generate 30% more oxygen and it can create the green effect very fast and it will take pressure off our precious trees,”<\/a> he says.<\/p>\n “Bamboo, you cut it down, it takes one season, it is back, it grows back, so it is a magic bullet of sorts that we need to use in our fight to save our environment.\u201d<\/p>\n In recent years, Ndawula Kalema has been upgrading his bamboo farm, which he started in 2009 as a hobby.<\/p>\n Growing bamboo on farmers\u2019 fields was something unheard of a few years ago, as the plant was mainly seen growing in the wild.<\/p>\n That’s no longer the case, as increasing numbers of farmers adopt bamboo planting, due to its income-generating benefits.<\/p>\n But bamboo seedlings are costly, which Ndawula Kalema says can deter farmers.<\/p>\n \u201cThe challenge we are seeing the price of a seedling is still very high, one seedling is about 1 dollar. There are others that are even more expensive costing up to 10 dollars one seedling – it is a put off,” he says.<\/p>\n