![]() "People are now becoming aware of the value bamboo has as in conservation work, in conserving our soils, conserving our environment, and they want planting material, but they can't afford the planting material." There are others that are even more expensive costing up to 10 dollars one seedling - it is a put off," he says. “The challenge we are seeing the price of a seedling is still very high, one seedling is about 1 dollar. That's no longer the case, as increasing numbers of farmers adopt bamboo planting, due to its income-generating benefits.īut bamboo seedlings are costly, which Ndawula Kalema says can deter farmers. Growing bamboo on farmers’ fields was something unheard of a few years ago, as the plant was mainly seen growing in the wild. ![]() In recent years, Ndawula Kalema has been upgrading his bamboo farm, which he started in 2009 as a hobby. "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.” 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," he says. “It can do the job of restoring our environment much faster. Ndawula Kalema says bamboo, which is fast-growing and can adapt to different weather conditions, is key to mitigating the effects of climate change in Uganda. ![]() With Uganda losing hundreds of hectares of forest cover due to population pressure and illegal logging, both public and individual efforts have become key to restoring degraded land. In 2021, it lost 49,000 hectares of tree cover, equivalent to 23.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.Īccording to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the East African country has lost over a million hectares of tree cover, nearly a third of the country’s total.
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