Uganda Launches $31m Project to Restore Forests, Tackle Climate Change

Uganda has launched a $31 million Results-Based Payment (RBP) project aimed at restoring degraded forest landscapes, supporting climate-resilient livelihoods, and curbing deforestation, after the Green Climate Fund (GCF) approved the funding in recognition of verified emission reductions the country achieved between 2016 and 2017.

The Uganda REDD+ Results-Based Payment Project was launched by the Minister of State for Environment, Beatrice Atim Anywar, who said that Uganda aims to restore forest cover to 24% the country’s total land area.

“As a country, our aspiration is to revert the forest cover back to 24% of the land cover by 2040 as stipulated in our vision 2040 planning framework,” Anywar said.

The financing marks a historic milestone for the country and the continent. According to Food and Agriculture of the United Nations (FAO) Representative in Uganda, Ezana Kassa, it is the first results-based payment project the GCF Board has approved for Uganda, the first for Africa, and the first for a Least Developed Country anywhere.

The payment follows independent verification that Uganda reduced deforestation and forest degradation emissions by approximately 8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent during the 2016-2017 period, under processes recognised by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

“These were not estimates. They were measured, reported and verified through internationally recognized processes,” Kassa said, describing the achievement as one built on years of groundwork rather than a single event. “Results-based climate finance does not begin when financing is approved. It begins years earlier. It begins with sound policies. With credible institutions. With forest inventories. With monitoring systems. With data. With safeguards. With technical capacity. And with communities managing the resources on which they depend.”

Kassa said that the funds should not be treated as an endpoint. “The USD 31 million payment is not just a reward for the past. It is seed capital for the future. It gives Uganda the opportunity to strengthen the systems and investments that can deliver the next generation of climate results,” he said, adding that Uganda should regard the milestone as “proof of concept” rather than a destination.

The project will channel resources into strengthening Uganda’s Measurement, Reporting and Verification systems, its National Forest Monitoring System, safeguards and benefit-sharing arrangements, while aligning REDD+ implementation with the country’s Nationally Determined Contributions. On the ground, it will finance sustainable land management, agroforestry, sustainable fuelwood and charcoal production, pole and timber plantations, and natural forest restoration.

Kassa linked the design directly to rural livelihoods. “We cannot ask a farmer to protect a forest if that household has no secure way to produce food or earn an income. We cannot address deforestation if we do not also confront the demand for biomass energy,” he said.

The project targets approximately 21,000 rural households, an estimated 105,000 people, across 17 priority districts, with FAO emphasising that smallholder farmers, private forest owners, women, young people, Indigenous Peoples and forest-dependent communities must be placed “at the centre” of implementation.

The Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Water and Environment, Dr. Alfred Okot Okidi said that the project responds directly to the pressures facing Uganda’s forests.

“This project challenges us to reflect on the human pressure on Uganda’s forests, climate change impacts, community livelihoods, and sharing of carbon and non-carbon benefits with the communities,” he said, adding that it will also strengthen forest governance and the systems used to monitor and verify changes in forest cover and emissions.

Uganda’s forest cover currently stands at about 2.36 million hectares, and government has set a target of restoring national forest cover to 24 percent of total land area by 2040 under its Vision 2040 framework.

The country has also committed to restoring 2.5 million hectares of degraded landscapes by 2030 under the Bonn Challenge/AFR100 initiative, cutting emissions under its updated Nationally Determined Contribution, and halting biodiversity loss by 2050.

Okidi described the launch as opening “a new chapter” in Uganda’s REDD+ journey, giving government an opportunity to reverse forest loss while improving rural livelihoods.