Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the air and turn it into biomass. PHOTO/V. Meadu

Amidst worldwide concern over climate change largely blamed on emissions from fossil fuel, there is an appreciation of the role of trees in absorbing carbon dioxide from the air (carbon sequestration).

Ongoing destruction of forests is, however, reducing the carbon sequestration services of trees and thereby accelerating climate change.

Coffee trees provide income to farmers from the sale of coffee beans but an added benefit is that coffee trees sequester atmospheric carbon. In recent decades, though, farmers have suffered from low coffee prices and have reduced the acreage under coffee.

This is especially the case around the Mabira Forest of central Uganda. The forest, which is located near the Ugandan capital, Kampala, faces pressure from urban developers while commercial agricultural producers want to turn it into plantations. With coffee prices still low, farmers around Mabira Forest are likely to sell or lease their land to developers.

“There is need to provide incentives to farmers so that they do not give up on the trees and coffee on their land,” says Thomas Yatich of the PRESA office in Nairobi. Thomas was part of an ICRAF team that visited Uganda in September 2009 to lay the foundation for a coffee-based carbon reward mechanism in central Uganda.

Talks were held with the Uganda National Forest Resources Research Institute (NAFORRI) and ECOTRUST, which is one of PRESA’s Uganda site partners. CAFNET is also part of the initiative.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss how experiences gained in carbon accounting at the Bushenyi District of south western Uganda can be replicated in central Uganda. ECOTRUST is already involved in a carbon offset scheme at Bushenyi and has been working with PRESA and CAFNET to assess the environmental services of coffee agroforests.

CAFNET is a research and development project that brings together pilot projects in Central America, East Africa and India. It works with coffee producers, stakeholders and the big buyers in the sector (Starbucks, Nespresso, Utz Kapeh, 4C among others).

PRESA sites in Uganda

Zoom out to view PRESA sites marked in a pink boundary.

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