Africa's first CDM forest project

Trees will return to a vast eroded grassland in Uganda as Africa's first Clean Development Mechanism forestry project evolves.

An area of 2,137 hectares of grassland within Uganda's Rwoho Central Forest Reserve, an upper watershed of Lake Victoria, will again become covered by trees after years of deforestation and erosion.

This is ensured by The Nile Basin Reforestation Project. The tree planting is implemented by Uganda's National Forestry Authority in association with local community organizations, using funds provided by the World Bank's BioCarbon Fund.

The project is Africa's first forest project under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism that allows industrialized countries to purchase emissions reductions in developing countries to meet part of their targets. In this case, it will become reductions created by The Nile Basin Reforestation Project that will sequest 0.29 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2017.

"This is a milestone for Uganda, especially considering the difficulty associated with bringing reforestation projects to this stage of final approval. I am happy that apart from providing physical financial resources, the project will also generate up to 700 jobs for the local population," says Kundhavi Kadiresan, World Bank Country Manager for Uganda, according to Environmental News Service.