tree talk june 2011

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Forests need wildlife

V o l . 1 1 N o . 1 J u n e 2 0 1 1

K itezi landfill is Kampala city'sdump. It is where trucks takethe rubbish of over one millionpeople. It is a hot place with apowerful smell. Plastic bottles,paper and discarded food are all

mixed together, so recycling andcomposting is hard, althoughpeople are trying to make it a betterplace.

Kitezi is a place that needs trees -- forshade, to absorb gases, capture run-off,for beauty, to shield the nearby houses,and for the workers and Marabou storks,

which do a lot to make it the best placeit can be under the circumstances. Inlate 2010 Tree Talk took action. Wethank KCC landfill managers MudanyiMichael and Kenneth Kyazze, GTZ andthe environment clubs of five schools forbeing our partners.

We planted 550 trees: Pines , Nandi flames, Lusambya, Musizi,Grevillea, Mvule, Terminalia, and swamp and oil palms. O

25% survived. It was not surprising.The dry season was starting. Thesoil is hard and acidic. We are nowplanting another 200 during the rainsto improve survival and will keepplanting trees until we make Kitezigreen.

Forests need wildlife W e usually think thatforests grow and then

animals move to live inthem. But we are wrong! Infact, animals -- mammals,reptiles, birds and insects --actually create forests.

Look at this drawing.Bees and butterflies arepollinating the flowers on thetrees, thereby causing them toform fruits and seeds.Monkeys, birds, bats, rodentsand elephants are eating thefruits and tree seeds. As theseanimals move through theforest and across open places,they disperse the seed. Theother way seed is dispersedis by wind and water. This ishow forests grow and sustainthemselves. Without wildlifeto help them, forests wouldconsist of old and dying trees.

The silent forest syndrome Across Africa, forests arefalling silent. The animals arebeing hunted out for meat,skins, horns, feathers and ritualor medicinal use, captured forsale and dying because theirhabitat is being degraded.

This Tree Talk is about theanimal-forest link and howto keep it strong. Protectinganimals protects forests and

vice versa. We know we needforests so we can do it!

Seed for tree nurseriesTree Talk isdeeply grateful tothe people andgovernment ofDenmark for theirgenerous support.

We pledge tocontinuegrowingtrees tomakethe worlda betterplace.

Your excellency, wecannot forget that in1991-3 you created fvenational parks, therebyprotecting vital forests:Bwindi, Semuliki,Kibale, Mgahinga andMt Elgon. We alsorecall that in 2002 youendorsed Tree Talk . Weurge you to remain asteadfastenvironmentalistin your fourth term

and empower theinstitutions thatmanage forests.

Thank you!

Message to HE the President

A n d a n im a ls n e e d tre e s & fo re s ts

Tree Talk plants at KCC landfill

RESPECT! Some of the students from G ayaza HighSchool, Kings College Budo, Makerere College,Entebbe SS and St Kizito Bugolobi during treeplanting at Kitezi landfll outside Kampala.

Tree Talk's Jonathan Kisakye res upstudents with Tree Talk's rap"Do we go ahead or do

we end here?" Of course, we goahead to fight climate change andimprove the world with trees.

IN THIS PICTURE, NOTICE THE SEED RAIN - the tree seeddispersed by bats and birds. Monkeys and elephants arealso passing seed in their droppings. A rodent is buryinga seed to eat later. If he forgets the seed, it maygerminate into a wildling.

Uganda is loosing forests at a terrifying rate. Out of 506 forest reserves, only 12 are intact. Populationgrowth is exerting intense pressure. Auena Nancy,12, P5, Pijimo PS, says, "We cut trees for firewoodand constructing houses. We also burn them toget charcoal for sale. This is how we have lostour forests and we are all affected. It is a crime todestroy forests."

Yes, we must obey the law and protect forests. Weneed to also grow trees. Often people want to raiseseedlings but lack seed. Contact us at PO Box 22366 Kampala, [email protected] or 077-2-564941. We will send you seed.

RIGHT: A boy in Sodo Community Nursery, Pakele,Adjumani, which raised 30,000 seedlings and sold them

to Tree Talk, NAADS and Farm Income EnhancementProject. Tree Talk provided training, seed and plasticpots. Raising trees can be proftable.


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Tree Talk, June 20112

says, Honeybee populations gohand in hand with fertilizationof trees and crops. Bees inUganda have reduced becauseof deforestation and wild fires.

Besides reducing seeddispersal, hunting of animalslike wild pigs means that lionsand other predators have tostarve or eat livestock, whichbrings con ict with humans.

Big carnivores have vanishedfrom many forests and canonly be found in protectedgrassland parks such asMurchison Falls, QueenElizabeth and Lake MburoNational Parks. Cameratrap surveys by WildlifeConservation Society found noleopards in Rwenzori, Bwindior Kibale or Kasyoha Kitomi orKalinzu forests.

Over 900,000 tourists cameto Uganda in 2010, bringingin $600 million in foreignexchange. They came to see biganimals like leopards!

Nkalate is

a valuabletimber tree. Also calledMululu orChrysophyllum ,children loveits fruits. Sadly there are no

young Nkalatetrees growingin many forests

where it hadlong beenfound.

Reason? TheNkalate treeneeds elephants,civet cats,bush pigs andantelopes to spread its seed.

Where these animals havedisappeared or are rare, like inMabira and Budongo forests, no

young Nkalate are growing.

Many other types of trees inUganda depend on animals tospread their seed. We mightimagine that a seed grows into atree just by falling on the groundunder its mother tree. But thisis wrong.

"A tree usually struggles toget its seed away from itself,"says Dr Fred Babweteera of

Budongo Forest

Project. "There arediseases specific tothe tree around it.

By the seed getting away, the treeenhances survival."

Indeed, there isoften a "hostileseed environment"under the crownof the parent tree.So many treeshave a strategy to ensure thatseeds are carriedaway. "Trees

with edible seedsattract animals andencourage them

to act as seed carriers," saysDr Emily Otali of HarvardUniversity's chimp project inKibaale. "Some seeds also travel

hooked to the fur of animals."

Not knowing the importance of animals to trees, communitiesoften just see them as freemeat and hunt them to nearextinction.

Dr Babweteera's camera caughtelephants, duikers, bush pigs andcivet cats eating Nkalate fruit.Children also love the fruit.

Mammals are key in forest ecology

P ollination is the processby which pollen istransferred from the anthersto the stigma in flowers,thereby enabling fertilization.Some plants are pollinated by

wind. Others are pollinated by insects and even small birdsand mammals.

As humans we depend uponpollination for food. It is thepollination that causes seeds,fruit and vegetables to form.The pollinators we know bestare honeybees. They performa great service for people by pollinating many crops, includingsunflowers, oranges and lemons,mangoes, pawpaw, water melon,pumpkins, guava, jack fruit andcoffee among others.

Kangave Alice, an insect expertat the Ministry of Agriculture,

Hunting hurtsforests

Bats are pollinators and super-seed dispersers

Most of us do not likebats. Sometimes peoplekill them because of misperceptions. But we need tothink again. Bats are amongthe most hard workinganimals, fulfilling tasksthat are vital to healthy ecosystems and humaneconomies.

Bats consume vast amountsof insects, including damaging

Forests are homes for insect pollinatorsfarmer's hives, they rely ontrees such as tamarind andacacia to make honey. Forestsalso contain water sources forhoneybees.

Honeybees are not the only useful insects. Wild pollinatorsinclude over 2600 other typesof bees, moths, beetles and

butterflies. Flies are secondin importance to bees aspollinating insects.Cocoa depends upon flies.Tomatoes depend on moths andbeetles for pollination.By conserving trees and forests,

we protect the insects thatpollinate the food we eat.

Fewer animals means lesstimber, less fruit for children and

reduced biodiversity. Animals needconservation.

This has led to crops having lessfruits.Trees are essential forhoneybees. Whether they live wild in the forest or in a

FROM TOP TO BOTTOM. A fyon a cocoa fower. Beetles ona daisy. A moth uses its longtongue to drink nectar from afower. A butterfy on a plant.

Pa rro t s a re va lua ble s e e d

d i s pe r s e r s in fore s t s .

Un for t una t e ly, the y a re o f t e n ke p t in c a ge s b y

un s c rupulou s pe ople . In

2 0 1 1 Tre e Ta lk dona t e d

UG X5 0 0 ,0 0 0 t o U WEC t o fe e d 2 3 0 pa rro t s re s c ue d from s m ug gle r s .

agricultural pests. Pregnantor nursing bat mothers canconsume their body weight ininsects in one night!

Fruit-eating bats pollinate anddisperse seeds that are criticalto maintaining and restoringtropical rainforests.

Without bats' pollination andseed-dispersing services, suchas ecosystems could collapse.

Almost 90% of the diet of straw-coloured fruit bats consistsof the fruit of Mvule, one of our most valued trees. Duringpeak fruiting season, a big batcolony can disperse millionsof Mvule seeds over an area of hundreds of miles. Bats are thesole pollinators of the famousBaobab tree. Bats are alsoanimals we need to protect.

LEFT:A straw-coloured fruitbat. RIGHT: Abat pollinates aBaobab fower.

A bee with pollen on his leg. Honeybees are also "wildlife" thatdepend on forests and bush. Coffee harvests are 20% highernear forest fragments that house wild honeybees. In Africa,bee pollination is worth 100 times the value of the honeyharvest.


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Our threatened wildlife

As humans disturb forests,new diseases are enteringthe human population. In thelast century two-thirds of new communicable diseasessuffered by people originated in

wildlife.

These include HIV/AIDS, SARS,bird flu and Ebola and Marburg,

which cause uncontrolledbleeding in humans:. "The pointis that we are destroying theforests and getting a lot morecontact with animals so we gettheir diseases," says Dr Frank Kaharuza, research director forCenters for Disease Control inEntebbe.

The boy above is sufferingfrom monkeypox, a viraldisease related to smallpox. Itcauses skin lesions,blindness, and deathin 10% of cases. Itis passed from wildanimals, mostly squirrels, to people,

who then pass it toeach other throughphysical contact or

I n the 1970s, soldiersreduced wildlife numbersto a fraction of whatthey should be. Rhinos

were wiped out entirely.Since then the situationhas improved but it is stillfragile.

Lions number 400, down fromthousands in the 1960s, andthey are declining. Lions inQueen Elizabeth National Park has decreased from 200 in2000 to 140 today. The park now has more cattle thanUganda kob, and cattlekeepersoften poison lions. InMurchison and Kidepo, lionsget caught in snaresfor antelopes.

Uganda kobnumbers reached30,000 in 1999 buthave fallen to 8000.

Uganda is home to

about 4400 chimps,

Barbara Alupo, 29, hashandraised dozens of injured

and orphaned wild animals."Handraising means I feed,train, treat and play withthem," says UWEC's animalhealth technician since 2005.

When humans are cruel toanimals, Barbara feels sad.Despite her expert care, thebaby potto below did notsurvive. Pottos are shy gentlenocturnal animals that live intrees. People had slaughteredits mother for no reason.However, the ringtail monkey (centre below) is growing well.Congolese poachers killed itsparents for food on a huntingtrip inside Uganda.

Barbara knows how muchmeat a leopard needs andhow to prepare an orphanedeagle for release back into the

wild. Her day starts at 8 am

Barbara, UWEC animal nurse

Our threatened wildlife

Risks of bush meat

LRA from SMary's AboDespite thisshe passed

A levelsin biology,chemistry,geography amaths and

went on tostudy WildlHealth andManagemenat Makerere

"The animals reward me by remembering me when I meetthem," she says. You too can

work for wild animals. It is anoble career.

with lab work. Sometimes sherushes to UWEC's hospital atnight for emergencies, like therecent birth of two lion cubsin the rain. With other girls,Barbara was abducted by the

but numbers are declining: 600km 2 of forest has been lostin the last ten years in Kibaleand Hoima, an area larger thanBudongo. Since one chimp

requiresabout onekm2 of forest, thismay have ledto the lossof about 600chimps.

Giraffes number about 300,mostly in Murchison. In Kidepo,lions are preying on the calvesof the 22 giraffe that remain!

Uganda has less thanten Cheetah. They survive in Karamojain Kidepo and PianUpe. Ostriches arealso declining.

In the 1960sthere were tens

POACHING AND HUNTING ARE ILLEGAL. If you nd a wild animal indistress, call Uganda Wildlife Education Centre (UWEC) on041-4-320520 or 071-8-440126. If an animal disturbs your

community, do not kill it. UWEC can stage a rescue. So far in 2011UWEC has rescued 10 pythons. You can also call UWA on

041-4-355000 or 077-2-733783.

of thousands of elephants which decreased in the 1970sbecause of trade in ivory. Since

1986, elephantshave increasedto about 4200.

Also, the humanpopulation hasincreased from8 to 33 millionpeople. So today human-elephantconflict can

be severe. Right, men dig atrench in Ishasha, near QueenElizabeth National Park, to

keep elephantsaway from theirgardens. Patrick

Agaba of UgandaConservationFoundation saysbees and chilibushes can also helkeep off these hugemammals.

contaminated objects such asbed sheets.

Monkeypox is not in Uganda yet but it is a big problem inCongo; it has cropped up evenin Ghana and the USA. In theCongo basin one million metrictonnes of bush meat is eatena year; hunting is a greaterthreat to its biodiversity thandeforestation.

In Kashoyi-Kitome forest in western Uganda monkeys havedeclined by 5 0% since 2001.

Are they being eaten? Willmonkeypox or new diseasesemerge?

Humans need protein, andUgandans eat only 5 kg of meat a year compared to the

50 kg that WorldHealth Organisationrecommends. Butour need for meat farexceeds the naturalreplacement of

wildlife. Bush meathas risk of diseaseand is not a solution.

Barbara feeds a serval kitten,brought by a concerned citizen

from Kitgum. Its brother (below)died shortly after this photo wastaken. Wild animals are delicat


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PO Box 22366Kampala

SMS 077-2-564491

We are harvesting firewood from our woodlot grown from Tree Talk seed. Weuse it to prepare teachers lunch. In 2009

we gave trees to the church for furniture.Headteacher, Ntuuro PS Kisoro

Ours is a mountainous area, so it is hard tocollect firewood. We buy it for UGX45,000/ month, making it UGX145,000/term. Marahi Y, Lhuhiri PS, Kasese

We get firewood from the forest, but ittakes us long to collect. Now we want

to grow our own trees. Musoki F, P7,Kyanjuki PS, Kasese

We warmly welcome Tree Talk in ourschool so we join hands to recover lostforests. And we just received your seeds!

Agriculture teacher Aedeke Micheal,Kikonda PS

We will make a seed bed with the Tree Talk seed. Science teacher, Kitara ParentsSchool

I was pleasantly surprised by the gift yousent. I needed the seed badly! I will putthem to good use and keep you posted.C Kateeba, Sheema Editor's note. InJune 2011, 70% of her Musizi seedgerminated; she has 120 seedlings.

Get seed from Tree Talk!

Tree Talk is committedto supplying treeseed to anyone whorequests it. In 2010 wegave seed to 25 NGOs,51 individuals, threechurches, 112 pupils, 20companies, 40 teachersand 306 head teachers.This is in addition to theseed we used in northernUganda.

To get seed: Please visitus at 4 Acacia Avenue,Kampala, or write, textor call us on 077-2-564941 or [email protected] Call before you come.

We may be in the field or need time tosupply the seed you want.

In 2010, we gave out 260 kg of seedof Musizi, 4.5 kg of Mvule, 3 kg of Eucalyptus, 20 kg of Podocarpus, 55 kgof Terminalia and 14 kg of Grevillea.

This Tree Talk was funded by DANIDA, with contribution from the WILD Project, supported by USAIDand led by Wildlife Conservation Society. Tree Talk is a project of Straight Talk Foundation Plot 4 Acacia

Ave, Kololo, PO Box 22366, Kampala Tel. 256-312-262030/1. Website: www.treetalk.or.ug,E-mail: [email protected]. Design: George Mukasa

The results werefantastic. To mentionjust a few: R Nakalema, 15, of

Wabilongo CoU PSreceived Musizi seedin Feb 2011. She gre110 seedlings to planon her grandmother'boundary.

Farmer N Aliro of Soroti grew 80 Musi

45 Mvule and over1000 eucalyptusseedlings from TreeTalk seed.

R Mugooda raised 3000 Musizi and over2000 Grevillea from our seed. His CBO,Kaliro Environment Conservation Project,

will give them to five schools. You can also collect your own seedor buy it from the National Tree SeedCentre, Namanve. Contact Joseph Ochwo,0712995512

Tree Talk answers people's desire for treesI t is easy to get demoralised aboutthe environment - the piles of charcoal sacks in Nakasongola,the drained wetlands, the destructionof forests along the Fort Portal road.But Tree Talk has found that withsmall interventions -- a sachet of seed, the gift of a wheelbarrow and plastic potting material, aradio show -- people step up togrowing and safeguarding trees.

In 2010 Tree Talk supported thegrowing of 830,000 trees in northernUganda and thousands more acrossthe nation. In all it grew 21 speciesof trees: 3% of seedlings raised wereMvule, 10% were Mahogany and30% were the useful indigenous treeLusambya,or Markhamia lutea.

ABOVE: A Tree Talk woodlot at Amuda PS inDokolo. LEFT: Tree Talk's SP Amunau (back tocamera) talks to staff in the Pader Tree Talknursery. Growing trees takes concentration.

Farmers at Tree Talk & Eco-Trust carbon credit trainings.Trees capture carbon as they grow. Since excess carbonin the atmosphere causes global warming, farmers canreceive "credits" (cash) for growing trees. Tree Talk chose70 farmers, of whom 30 were women.

The cash they receive will vary by species planted. Butthey can expect to earn about UGX1.5 million for 400trees left to grow for ten years. They also own the trees

and can sell them for timber when they are mature.

Tree Talk works with hundreds of teachersand adults in the community. This gentle-man had collected wild seedlings (wild-lings) of cypress for a Tree Talk community

nursery at the foot of Mt Otze, Moyo.

Tree Talk helpspupils from JulinaMemorial Schoolfor the Deaf inMityana set up atree nursery.

Your letters

Quiz!WiN PRIZES!

Tree Talk's G Kiyingi andC Watson give a prize to

teacher Emily Mwaka,patron of the environmentclub of Entebbe SS.

In 2011 Tree Talk aims to raise 2.4million trees in the north and tens of thousands across Uganda. Every school,church, mosque, barracks and prisonneeds a woodlot, shade and windbreaks.Become a Tree Talk partner. Contact us.

In a letter OR drawing,describe a forest near you.

What trees and animalsdoes it have? Is it safeand healthy? What is

happening to it? Send to Tree Talk, PO Box

22366, Kampala [email protected]

Pupils at PalogaPS in Lamwo havea practical classsession in TreeTalk's nursery. TOPINSERT: mahoganyseeds germinate.

tree talk june 2011

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