A comprehensive new $43.3 million (40 million euro) funding package from the European Union is sustaining a decades-long effort to combat rampant deforestation in Uganda, aiming to fundamentally rewire the nation’s economy for green jobs and long-term climate resilience.
Rooted in more than 15 years of partnership and aligned with the EU’s Global Gateway strategy, the latest commitment of about 160 billion Ugandan shillings seeks not just to protect forests but also to generate jobs and enhance forest governance, officials said.
EU Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevi?ius underscored the investment’s urgency during a recent visit to Kampala.
“Built on years of shared experience, this investment continues our work to enhance the role of forests in the bio-economy and nurture our trade flows of wood material,” Sinkevi?ius said.
President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni acknowledged the support, stating the program helps the government “protect our forests and also deal with those who want to encroach on the forests.”
The EU-Uganda Forestry Programme is structured around three strategic areas: increasing inclusive investment and job creation, expanding forest cover, and enhancing the effectiveness of forest governance.
A key component addresses a challenge created by a past success: the previous Sawlog Production Grant Scheme fostered more than 70,000 hectares of commercial forest plantations, creating 12,000 direct jobs. This success is projected to unleash a massive 2.6 million cubic meters of legal wood supply per year by 2030, a volume that threatens to overwhelm the local market and potentially push loggers back toward illegal harvesting.
The $16.2 million (15 million euro) Sustainable Wood-Based Value Chains project, implemented by the Food and Agricultural Organization, is working to preempt this crisis by strengthening the entire processing sector. The initiative is modernizing sawmills, including key industrial players in Jinja and Mityana, to maximize usable wood yield. Simultaneously, it promotes local production of goods like furniture and roofing, fostering an indigenous wood economy and reducing reliance on costly imports.
Partnerships with commercial development experts like AVAYO and the Gatsby Foundation are facilitating the investment needed to ensure the next generation of wood industry jobs is both sustainable and profitable.
Beyond the timber markets, the program is tackling climate change adaptation.
Under the Green Coffee Initiative, or Robust Project, the future of Uganda’s vital coffee sector is being secured at the genetic level. This sector has been battered by heat, pests and disease.
At the National Coffee Research Institute in Mukono District, researchers are collecting and multiplying indigenous coffee species found deep within Uganda’s natural forests. This research confirms that these natural strains are proving significantly more resistant to climate change impacts, a finding that promises better, more resilient yields for thousands of smallholder farmers and safeguards the nation’s coffee export revenues.
This focus on climate resilience extends to the ongoing charcoal crisis.
The $5.4 million (5 million euro) Forest Management and Sustainable Charcoal Value Chain project confronts the core driver of deforestation — demand for cooking fuel — with an innovative two-pronged approach.
Alfred Okidi, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Water and Environment, highlighted the revolutionary efficiency gains. “Instead of cutting a hundred trees, one will be cutting not more than thirty to produce the same quantity of charcoal,” Okidi said. He referenced the successful promotion of the high-efficiency Casamance kiln, which achieves up to 30% better carbonization efficiency than traditional methods, effectively saving 70% of trees.
To promote a permanent shift away from solid biomass, the initiative has established four briquette-making factories in partnership with the International Women’s Coffee Agency. Here, women entrepreneurs are converting agricultural byproducts, notably coffee husks, into smokeless, affordable cooking fuel, reducing pressure on forests while fostering local enterprise.
The entire program is fortified by legal and policy support to ensure long-term integrity.
This includes a dedicated $5.4 million (5 million euro) project, implemented with the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime, that is actively working to strengthen the criminal justice response to illegal timber trafficking and forest crime.
Furthermore, the program is coordinated by the Ministry of Water and Environment to enhance governance and align Uganda’s trade policies with new global standards, including the EU’s upcoming regulation on ‘deforestation-free’ products — a critical factor for future exports like coffee.
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