Uganda is five times the size of the Netherlands and has more than 43 million inhabitants. It is totally surrounded by the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan and Tanzania. Uganda borders are south of Lake Victoria, and spread towards the East African region.

PUM Netherlands Senior Experts received a request for advice to acquire extra knowledge on how to manage tree planting business. Learning good forest management practices will also contribute to the mitigation of climate change effects that are already being felt in this country.

In this case we advised to use table constructions so that the wind can blow underneath and the roots do not grow out of the pot. For women it is also less difficult to work at table height than to bend.

This is the first thinning of Eucalyptus grandis x E.urophylla clonal material. It was planted in 2014. The first thinning is done with machete, and the wood is used for building material and charcoal. After the second thinning the trees are sold for telephone poles with a length between 10 and 14 metres and a diameter above 27 cm. The diameter of a tree measures 1,3 metres above the ground.

Splitting of boards during sawing as a consequence of high growth stress is more severe in fast growing species like Eucalyptus grandis and young trees with a smaller diameter compared with older and thicker logs of the same species. This is due to the larger stress gradient between sapwood and heartwood.

Extracting logs using five men. The transport of the telephone poles from the plantation to a landing where a trailer can come is done by human power. Five men pull the telephone poles with ropes hundreds of metres to a central place.

Uganda was named the fourth-best tourism destination in the world. The biodiversity plains of the rich valley of Bakojja Wood County in Mubende district are not cleared to establish commercial plantations, also the wetlands are protected. There are plans to leverage the beautiful scenery provided by the hills and valleys with small scale nature-based tourist facilities.

Uganda is a safe port for many refugees. They are allowed to do some farming in the pine plantations after the third thinning. Only then there is enough light created on the ground to grow beans. Beans are of the family of leguminous and are nitrogen fixing. By farming in the plantation with so many people, there is more social control of illegal wood cuttings or fire outbreak. The owner of the plantation, the refugees, the pine trees and the beans, all of them benefits each other.

In Uganda bricks are manufactured along the road. There is a lot of firewood needed for this process. These boys bring Eucalyptus wood to brickworks to sell it as firewood.

Uganda - Kasana, Mubende district.