Abstract:

Climate change has now been proven to be real and is threatening to get worse over time However, we can mitigate the causes of climate change or learn how to live with the changes in climate. Planting trees that are able to sequester (absorb) green-house gases such as carbon dioxide that cause global warming is one of the options of mitigating this effect. Mechanisms have been set up to help poor farmers in developing countries to plant trees that absorb carbon dioxide and get paid by the highly polluting nations and companies. However, Uganda has not fully benefited from these initiatives because of inadequate technical capacity and information on baseline carbon. To address this, NaFORRI is undertaking research to understand how much carbon is currently stored in soil, trees and other plants growing in the various farming systems of Uganda. We shall also estimate how much carbon dioxide is gradually removed by selected plantation tree species in trials we shall establish in various agro-ecological zones of Uganda.