Environmental Defenders has purchased an off-grid, solar-powered seed bank and nursery from Terraformation to help scale up the organization’s restoration work in the Albertine region of Uganda and North Eastern DR Congo. Under this initiative, Environmental Defenders has already developed a well-functioning regional native seed hub that serves as a center of excellence to support surrounding restoration projects in the Lake Albert region of Uganda and the North Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The long-term goal of Environmental Defenders with this initiative is to serve as a conservation education and seed storage hub for all of Sub-Saharan Africa. The organization would like to satisfy the needs of neighboring nations such as Kenya, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania, and others that are interested in learning about and applying ED’s tree conservation technique in their own territories. We also wish to preserve understory herbs used in traditional medicine, as well as grass kinds utilized in traditional house construction, all of which have declined in recent years due to human activities like bushfires and large-scale commercial activity expansion. All of the organization’s efforts will assist in ensuring that marginalized and under-resourced communities are not left behind in the transition to a more environmentally just future.
Oil and gas drilling in the Albertine Region is one concern to Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Lake Albert region. Environmental Defenders was formed specifically to protect fragile natural regions in perpetuity from such unsustainable practices, and land protection, conservation, and replanting are the most effective means to accomplish this.
Aside from money generating, the project aims to reduce deforestation pressures on surrounding populations. In addition to carbon sequestration, the project will improve environmental services such as water retention, runoff reduction, soil stabilization in mudslide-prone areas, and soil nutrients. It also resulted in better land use planning and community-based climate change adaptation plans. Importantly, the initiative will also produce unique carbon management techniques that may be copied in other communities across the African continents, particularly in the Congo Basin and East Africa, and will spread organically around the world.
Aside from money generating, the project aims to reduce deforestation pressures on surrounding populations. In addition to carbon sequestration, the project will improve environmental services such as water retention, runoff reduction, soil stabilization in mudslide-prone areas, and soil nutrients. It also resulted in better land use planning and community-based climate change adaptation plans. Importantly, the initiative will also produce unique carbon management techniques that may be copied in other communities across the African continents, particularly in the Congo Basin and East Africa, and will spread organically around the world.
About Environmental Defenders:
The Environmental Defenders (ED) is an ecofeminist and collaborative environmental justice organization that aims to conserve biodiversity and the rights of Indigenous Peoples. We work in the Albertine Rift region, which includes the Murchison-Semliki, Greater Virunga, and Ituri landscapes and borders the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda.
We are dedicated to building resilience for environmental and human security by aiding marginalized Indigenous Peoples and traditional communities in the Albertine rift region to live sustainably and protect their cultural practices, water supplies, lands, and surrounding environment.
Our purpose is to safeguard and protect the natural environment, as well as the people and species who rely on it.We envision a secure, healthy, and ecologically sound environment for both people and wildlife.
