In Uganda, refugees’ need for wood ravaged the forest. Now, they work to restore it – Stigmatis News

A sapling is held before it is planted inside Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Mbarara, Uganda, on Dec. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda)

Twagirayesu’s family has grown from two children when they arrived more than a decade ago to eight now, a boon for the family but also a marker of the immense pressure the Nakivale Refugee Settlement has put on the landscape near the Tanzania border.

What was wide forest cover two decades ago is now mostly gone, cut down for cooking fuel. When Twagirayesu saw women digging up roots to burn a few years ago, he knew it was time to act…

Source: In Uganda, refugees’ need for wood ravaged the forest. Now, they work to restore it – Stigmatis News