SPGS 2009-2013: Highlights
We promised that our web-site visitors would be the first to hear about the highlights of our forthcoming 4-year Phase II, so here goes. Be warned though, it is ambitious and if we are to succeed we will need our many growers (we refer to them as ‘Clients’) to be as committed to growing the trees as we are to supporting them! We will need close cooperation from our many partners too, to ensure the investment environment remains favourable as well as key research and training institutions and others involved in the tree planting business here in Uganda. SPGS Phase II will focus on the same 4 key areas as in Phase I but expanded thanks to the generous support of the European Union and the Government of Norway.
Supporting Commercial Timber Plantations: the planting subsidy has increased (to Ushs850,000 per ha) for small-medium growers (25-500ha) but so have the standards, especially with regard to environmental and social issues. New support for woodlots (fuelwood plantations) is planned and the pruning/thinning grant has doubled (to Ushs100,000 per ha) to encourage growers to have not only fast growing but also quality crops.
Improving Skills and Raising Awareness: here the project will offer a substantial support service for private sector growers – especially by training people in the most cost-effective methods of plantation establishment. In close collaboration with the Uganda Timber Growers’ Association (UTGA), the SPGS will also work harder to ‘spread the gospel’ to raise awareness in the right circles about the enormous development potential of commercial forestry.
Community Planting Support: the success of our community planting initiative (which started in 2005) rather took us by surprise and the demand has gone through the roof (or should that be the canopy?). In Phase II, we are planning to supply more than 3 million trees to committed communities around the country. We also have come up with some exciting new strategies for improving our support to these smaller growers (details will be in SPGS News no. 26 – due out late Nov. ‘09).
Research & UTGA Support: with the scale of planting now becoming so large, the need for applied research to support growers is fast becoming critical. During Phase II we will fund applied research work as prioritized by the COMFORT group (refer SPGS News No. 21). We are also committed to building the capacity of UTGA over the coming 4 years.
NB. We will provide more details on each of these result areas over the coming few weeks so please check the web-site regularly.
