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There might have been a lack of big game but there were plenty of lessons to learn that will help us in Uganda. That seems to be the consensus after a team from Uganda spent some time in UK recently. The destination was the Commonwealth Forestry Conference in Edinburgh, which ran for the week starting 28 June, 2010. For the week before the meeting, SPGS asked a Lancashire-based forester, Mr David Brackley, to organize a tour of commercial forestry in what is called the Borders region between northern England and southern Scotland. And what a trip it was! We visited some very impressive private estates - namely, the Roxburghe’s Floors Estate in Kelso and Queensbury Estate at Drumlanrig. We also spent a day in the UK’s largest forest - Keilder, with 50,000 ha of plantations under the stewardship of the State-owned Forestry Commission. Kielder attracts over 500,000 visitors a year as well as producing 400,000 m3 of timber each year.  We also visited the UK’s largest bioenergy plant - EON’s Steven’s Croft Power Station at Lockerbie, which runs solely on wood. Read all about the trip in the new SPGS News No. 29.

At the Commonwealth Forestry Conference, SPGS created a lot of interest. We had a stall in the entrance hall and distributed many Newsletters and Guidelines. Paul Jacovelli also gave a presentation on SPGS, which generated a lot of debate: read the full paper here.

The team on the UK tour comprised SPGS’s Allan Amumpe, Celia Nalwadda, Zainabu Kakungulu and Paul Jacovelli. The were also grateful to the Commonwealth Forestry Association for part-funding one of our successful growers - Mwebaze Yonasani - to accompany us. Mwebaze is Chairperson of the Kamusiime Memorial Pilot Development Scheme in Bushenyi.