Young Ugandans to drive forest restoration and climate action
The three-day workshop also provided a platform for mentorship, networking and peer learning, with participants sharing experiences from community-based projects aimed at addressing forest and landscape challenges
KAMPALA, August 4, 2026 — The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations [FAO], in partnership with the Ministry of Water and Environment [MWE] and Uganda Youth Go Green, has trained 20 young Ugandans in forest monitoring, restoration and climate finance as the country steps up efforts to restore degraded landscapes and address climate change.
The training, held recently in Kampala under the AIM4Forests Young Forest Champions Initiative, brought together young people from across Uganda to strengthen their technical skills and explore opportunities for greater youth participation in the forestry and climate sectors.
The three-day workshop also provided a platform for mentorship, networking and peer learning, with participants sharing experiences from community-based projects aimed at addressing forest and landscape challenges.
The initiative builds on an earlier cohort and seeks to strengthen youth participation in Uganda’s forestry and climate agenda by equipping young people with practical skills and knowledge relevant to forest restoration and emerging climate finance opportunities.
Youth engagement in climate finance
A major focus of the workshop was Uganda’s planned implementation of the Green Climate Fund [GCF] Results-Based Payment Project, a seven-year initiative expected to support forest restoration, sustainable land management and climate resilience under Uganda’s REDD+ strategy.
Through a co-design exercise, the young forest champions identified areas where they could contribute to implementation, including forest restoration, community forestry, benefit-sharing, forest monitoring, communication, innovation and leadership.
They also proposed the use of technologies such as Open Foris, GPS devices, drones, remote sensing and citizen science to strengthen forest monitoring and reporting.
The recommendations are expected to inform the project’s Youth Engagement Strategy and guide youth participation during implementation.
Digital tools for forest monitoring
The workshop also introduced participants to Open Foris Ground, an open-source digital platform developed by FAO for collecting and managing forest monitoring data.
Eva Ntara, FAO’s Forest Monitoring AIM4Forests Youth Engagement Specialist, said the initiative was established partly to address the limited participation of young people and women in forestry.
“This is a mentorship initiative that was started because there were very few young people and women involved in forestry,” Ntara said. “Through this initiative, young people gain access to skills, mentorship, funding opportunities and career development support that enable them to grow their projects.”
She said monitoring remained a major challenge despite the growing number of tree-planting campaigns.
“Often, people plant trees but do not monitor them. That is one reason why many restoration efforts are not as successful as they could be,” she said.
Ntara said Open Foris Ground could help young people and communities track restoration activities because it is open-source and accessible.
The platform enables users to collect georeferenced data to monitor tree survival rates and identify areas requiring further restoration interventions.
Training translating into community action
Some participants said the training had already strengthened their work in forest restoration and environmental conservation.
Gad Okodi, a Young Forest Champion who participated in both cohorts, said the training and FAO e-learning courses had enabled him to support community tree nurseries in restoring degraded landscapes.
“After completing the training and FAO’s e-learning courses, I have been supporting local community tree nurseries to scale up restoration of degraded landscapes,” Okodi said.
He said the skills acquired through the programme also helped him secure an internship with the World Wide Fund for Nature [WWF].
Bernadette Natukwasa, another participant, said the workshop enabled her to learn from other young environmental leaders and gain ideas for strengthening community-based initiatives.
Ekel Fiona, Chief Executive Officer of Ekel Organics, said the programme had enabled her to support about 100 women engaged in tree planting and environmental conservation.
“So far, we have planted two acres of trees, contributing to environmental conservation while creating future livelihood opportunities,” she said.
Edwin Muhumuza, Chief Executive Officer of Uganda Youth Go Green, said the organisation had facilitated the planting of more than seven million trees as part of its target of planting 20 million trees by 2030.
“The AIM4Forests programme complements the work we are already doing,” Muhumuza said. “By building the capacity of young people in forest monitoring, we create more opportunities to improve restoration efforts across the country.”
The training comes as Uganda seeks to strengthen forest restoration, sustainable land management and climate resilience, with young people increasingly being positioned to contribute to monitoring, community mobilisation and restoration initiatives.
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