When a group of agronomists approached her Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) group in mid-2021 to impress upon it the benefits of commercial tree planting, Jennifer Oyella’s husband, Francis Ojara, shot down the idea. Not only would it deplete soil nutrients but also shrink the family’s arable land, he reasoned. Undeterred, the agronomists from Kijani Forestry Ltd went on a charm offensive. Free seedlings, they disclosed, would be issued, with annual tree survival incentives paid across six years.
‘They asked to partner with us on a pilot project due to the devastation caused by internally displaced persons (IDP) at Pagik IDP camp nearly 20 years ago,’ Oyella recalls. With more than 30 acres of land, Oyella was asked to allocate only six acres for the model in which an acre of fast-maturing tree varieties would be planted every year for five years. She answered affirmatively, and, last month, Kijani Forestry Ltd paid her household slightly more than Shs0.6m as an annual tree survival incentive for their combined 3.5-acre woodlot (mixed Acacia polyacantha and East Indian Walnut varieties)
‘I am using that money to till another acre for a woodlot next year. I wish I had the capacity to plant more,’ she says. Kijani Forestry Ltd’s annual tree survival incentive works to Shs100 per tree at the end of each project’s first year. In 2026, the couple is optimistic to pocket three times the amount they received last year. This is because of the accumulated pay in the annual tree survival incentive. That’s not all. In early 2026, farmers, under the initiative, who planted their woodlot with green charcoal tree species, are set to embark on charcoal production utilising trees planted between 2020 and 2021.
Bastion of the rich no more
Planting and growing trees in Uganda once was inaccessible to the rural smallholder farmer. Forestry was a bastion of the rich thanks to prohibitive prices for seedlings as well as inaccessible and understocked nurseries. However, since 2018, Kijani Forestry Ltd has evolved into one of the country’s largest tree-planting organisations. Its innovative Nursery Hub Model now takes the nurseries to the farmers in their communities while providing all inputs at no cost.
Through the model, the farmers are now planting on their own land and signing contracts with Kijani Forestry Ltd to guarantee the procurement of their charcoal, timber, and carbon they will produce at farm-gate prices at the time of harvest.
Philip Olwoch, a farmer field coordinator with Kijani Forestry, says: ‘In year one the farmer gets Shs100,000 in incentives if all the 1,000 seedlings planted, survives, in year two, he gets Shs300,000 since the first acre, survival incentive grows to Shs200 (Shs200,000) each plus the second acre (Shs100,000), that incentive motivates the farmer to grow more trees and adds the third acre with income in tree survival now growing to Shs500,000 in year three.’ By year five, the woodlot planted in year one is due for the first harvest. At this time, the farmer’s income now works out to Shs6.9m (Shs900,000 in tree survival payments and another Shs6m in charcoal harvests). This is based on the 200 bags per acre average and Shs30,000 per-bag-average.
In the sixth year, the farmer plants the last acre (worth incentivising), but they continue receiving the survival incentives for the trees on a per-acre basis while harvesting those planted in year two. Olwoch told Business Outlook that the farmer earns three streams of income: one from the annual tree survival incentive payments, two from charcoal sales, and three from the Kijani Fund. For timber, instead of 1,000 trees, they do 400 trees per acre at Shs200 per tree in survival incentive, while the carbon crediting shoots up to Shs50,000 per tree in the 10th year.
During the harvest of both timber and green charcoal tree varieties, the intervention incorporates an on-field biochar production and use model where tree residues are locally burnt in a controlled manner. This, says Olwoch, ensures ‘very effective soil amendment and improves the fertility of the soil.’ From year eight, the farmer undertakes two harvests-the coppice harvest and the first harvest. In year nine, the first harvest of what they planted in year four, plus the coppice harvest of year two, is also ready, while in year 10, the first harvest of the fifth year woodlot, plus the coppice harvest of year three, is also ready. From year 11, because of the coppice harvest, the amount of charcoal is even more, and the income jumps to approximately Shs19m.
Carbon credits explained
It is from year 10, though, that the farmer begins receiving an additional stream of income from the Kijani Fund-the actual carbon (money) credit. ‘As trees grow from year one, we do a long-term average and from year 10, each tree is credited Shs200, and that money goes into the Kijani Fund, where the funders donate to us to pay the farmers,’ Michael Tebere, Kijani Forestry’s Director for Government and Partner Relations, says. Everything is predicated on so-called carbon credits. A credit is created when the equivalent of one metric tonne of carbon dioxide is prevented from entering the atmosphere or the equivalent amount of a different greenhouse gas is reduced, sequestered or avoided.
The smallholder farmer model that Kijani adopted for the Acholi Sub-region is developed to work on a six-acre model since the average land size per household in the region is currently 10 acres. ‘We encourage farmers to plant a lot (approximately one acre) each year for six years. By mid-2024, we had partnered with over 30,000 households to plant over 10 million trees,’ Tebere told Business Outlook. Across the 27 districts and a network of nearly 45,000 farmers in Acholi, Lango, West Nile, Karamoja, Teso and Bunyoro sub-regions, farmers are mobilised in groups comprising 15 to 20.
Each has a tree nursery of their own to generate excess seedlings. It is estimated that by 2030, the demand for carbon credits could far exceed the available supply, leading to a significant shortfall in the voluntary carbon market. Major corporations worldwide have set ambitious net-zero and carbon-negative targets for 2030, driving the estimated demand for carbon credits to between 1.5 and 2 gigatonnes of CO2 annually. However, the projected supply of carbon credits is expected to reach only about 280 to 470 million metric tons annually by 2030.
Charcoal production
In Uganda, more than 90 percent of the country relies on charcoal or firewood for cooking, causing widespread deforestation with devastating environmental effects. A century ago, Uganda’s forest cover exceeded 50 percent, but today it is just seven percent. ‘With roughly 2.5 million hectares of degraded land nationwide, we aim at replicating this initiative on a large scale to reverse environmental degradation and restore Uganda’s forests for future generations,’ Tebere said.
Kijani piloted its woodland restoration model on a 500-acre plot of land in Amuru district, where commercial charcoal production (a charcoal hotspot) had previously been carried out. The model seeks to restore what people have destroyed on a large scale. The restoration efforts prioritise six indigenous tree species: Acacia polyacantha (White Thorn), Albizia lebbeck (East Indian Walnut), Gmelina arborea (White Teak), Markhamia lutea (Nile Tulip), Senna siamea (Cassod tree), and Terminalia glaucescens (Velvet leaf tree).
‘These indigenous tree species are naturally suited to local conditions, ensuring long-term health and stability of the forests. Diverse forests excel at sequestering and storing carbon, supporting richer soil carbon stocks and contributing to climate mitigation,’ Tebere told Business Outlook. Through its restoration model, long-term lease agreements are secured on large plots of land with land owners where the indigenous farmers are hired to carry out seedling production, planting and growing trees. While the restoration sites will sequester millions of tonnes of carbon, their value extends far beyond this. These forests are meticulously designed to stabilise local microclimates, restore biodiversity, and generate hundreds of jobs for local communities.