Seedling Bank I helped start a new program where we also offer seedling trees to plant. The program involves collecting indigenous tree seedlings and seeds in a regulated manner from BINP once every two-weeks and nurturing those seedlings within their nursery beds to ensure an appropriate re-planting stage, planting the seedlings within the community strategically for environmental and educational benefits and educating the community around non-consumptive values of indigenous trees to local people and the importance of conserving trees in and around BINP.

And finally providing data to Uganda Wildlife Authority with regards to species and numbers collected and planted. Although the seed bank program has been going on for a long time we launched the seedling program while I was there on site in Uganda. We had a big community awareness kick off about the program and after the community launch we planted 53 trees for my 50th birthday and for the 53 people that donated. The trees are more than just a tree that looks good and reforests the area. The trees are an incentive for farmers to join the Seed Bank project and grow new crops that are beneficial for the land fertility, for their family’s nutrition and for crops they can sell for money which enables them to pay school tuition for their children.

After the locals have been in the Seedbank for 6 months they can get trees. In a group of 10 trees we give them trees that they can eat (Ongo giant yellow mulberry , papaya, avocado etc.) we also give them some trees they can harvest for wood and we give them 2 trees that must remain forever like Mahogany which is native to the area. This map location -1.110130,29.670533 marks the first tree at the center of a roundabout we built and the letter Africa Letter 1 is from the Chairman, Garubanda Kerementi of Nyabaremura village where we planted this tree. My friends and I now have donated a grove of trees in Nyabaremura, Uganda the south sector of the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest! Attached are pictures of the tree planting day and another picture with me and Amy Scarth who is the founder of the Big Beyond.