It’s More Than Trees: Notes From The Field

Honking boda bodas, bonding over songs of gratitude, sweet smells of freshly sliced papaya, the zing that hits you from a not-quite-ripe passionfruit. This is the story of our trip to Eastern Uganda, a three-day adventure into the heart of Mt Elgon National Park with Trees for the Future, where we met the committed folk who do the good work day in, day out. 

Our partnership with conservation legends Trees for the Future is well rooted, we celebrated planting one million trees together back in April this year, and continue to support their epic work to educate and train farmers on their unique Forest Garden Approach. 

It’s easy to sit back in comfort and take this in, but nobody from Passenger had ever seen first-hand the impact our tree donations have made on the lives of farmers and communities out there in the field.

So, Passenger founder Rich and some of the crew recently had the humbling opportunity to meet the people on the ground, visiting farmers and their Forest Gardens in the Mt Elgon region of Uganda.

The mission? Show up in the communities we’ve supported, spend time with farmers and hear their stories, their challenges, and find out firsthand how the Forest Garden Approach is a game-changer for their livelihoods.

Boots laced and packs on backs, we set off on our journey and documented everything along the way. 

“We plant a tree for every order”. Roots in the ground, absorbing carbon from the air. But it’s so much more than that, it’s about community. We visited many farms and projects during our trip, and at each site, we were welcomed with nothing but good vibes. Open arms, the biggest smiles, and songs that stayed with us long after we got home (stay tuned for Rich’s sound mix…).

Trees for the Future flies the flag for the Forest Garden Approach - a specialist mix of agroforestry techniques that empowers farmers to take back control of their land, diversify their crops and improve their livelihoods. 

Walking through a Forest Garden, you almost forget where you are. Towering banana trees form a shaded canopy overhead, sunlight filtering through to give just enough light for the crops below to do their thing. Although it was hot and humid, the air had that thick scent of fresh foliage. Some farmers have planted herb gardens, the perfect opportunity to get nose-to-shrub for a familiar sniff of rosemary.

Or an in-field chilli taste test, if you’re anything like our founder Rich…

After four years of training, farmers are awarded a professional certification. Where farmers once grew one or two crops, they now produce dozens of food and resource crops for their families, year-round. Not only do they have plenty to eat, they have plenty to sell at their weekly markets.

These are just some of the techniques we learnt about at the TREES training site:

Forest Gardens start with ‘green walls’ - a three-rows-deep living wall of calliandra plants that will grow fast to border the farm and protect it from the elements and livestock. It provides fodder for animals, farmers can take dead leaves to use as compost, and the trees help mix and maintain soil health. Another thing we quickly learnt - everything in a Forest Garden has more than one purpose.

From there, farmers are free to design their Forest Gardens however they like. It’s their chance to put into practice what they've learnt during training, what suits their farm best depending on the terrain and location, and they always have support from Trees for the Future’s expert field technicians along the way.

Mary is one farmer who’s taken total creative freedom in designing her Forest Garden. She built this incredible web structure above her permagarden to grow passionfruit climbers. We ducked under and explored the farm, leaving with a handful of fresh passionfruits Mary insisted we take.

We visited a few farms up higher up into the hills, and it’s here that coffee shrubs flourish. Splitting open their berries to reveal the beans that would eventually become someone’s morning brew, the farmers told us how wholesalers would travel here to buy beans straight from the farm or in the local markets, giving them another stream of reliable income.

One farmer we met in this project had extended his farm beyond his original green wall, making the most of the land he had to diversify his Forest Garden even further. He even set out an area to keep bees, but we didn’t roam too close…

At the first signs of rain, we said our goodbyes and hopped it back to the trucks. Heavy rainfall can make the mud roads pretty gnarly to drive on in these mountainous areas, so we didn’t fancy our chances, as much as we had total faith in our driver James.

Trees for the Future can only help so many farmers at a time, so they came up with a creative way to empower farmers to pass on the knowledge they’ve learnt during their four years of Forest Garden training.

While visiting a Plant It Forward farm in one of the projects, we learnt that around 10 farmers in each project are selected to be part of the scheme, guided by field technicians on how to educate other farmers in their area on the Forest Garden Approach.

One technique that’s passed on through communities is the art of grafting plants. Taking a more mature mango or avocado plant and combining the branch structure with a younger plant reduces the time it takes the plant to fruit from five years to three.

The impact goes beyond this initiative too. We met a farmer who lives next door to the TREES training site. He observed the techniques being taught to other farmers and decided to bring these methods to his own land. Without any formal training, he was able to mimic the Forest Garden Approach and is benefitting from better harvests and a higher income.

‘Plant It Forward’ is knowledge-sharing and empowerment at its finest, and creates an incredible halo effect.

Weekly markets are a huge part of the lives of the farmers we met in Mt Elgon. Each week they travel up to two hours with various crops harvested from their Forest Gardens, and livestock too. 

We drove further east to the Bukigai market on the Kenyan border and were blown away by the vibrancy and diversity of fruit and veggies on display from Forest Garden farmers compared to other stalls.

As we walked through the market, TREES colleagues took us to a few different Forest Garden farmers who were selling bananas, cabbage, jackfruit, avocados, even goats. Two of the farmers we were due to visit had actually already sold through everything and headed home to their families early - a result. Forest Garden produce is clearly in demand on market day.

Alice told us how being part of the TREES project had given her the freedom to work and earn a living, whereas before she was mostly cooking with what limited ingredients they could buy at the market. Now she is looking after her land, successfully selling her produce and able to feed her family and put her kids through school.