Uganda has secured 113 billion shillings, equivalent to 31 million US dollars, from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) after achieving verified reductions in deforestation and forest degradation. The funding, announced at the launch of the Uganda REDD+ Results-Based Payments Project, rewards Uganda for reducing an estimated eight million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions between 2016 and 2017.
The emissions reductions were independently measured and verified under processes of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Minister of State for Environment Beatrice Atim Anywar described the funding as a historic milestone, saying it is the first Results-Based Payments project approved by the GCF Board for Uganda, the first of its kind for an African country and the first for a Least Developed Country worldwide. Anywar said the project demonstrates how countries that take credible action to protect and restore forests can be financially rewarded for their climate efforts. She said Uganda’s Vision 2040 targets restoration of national forest cover to 24 percent, alongside international commitments including the restoration of 2.5 million hectares of degraded land under the Bonn Challenge and efforts to curb biodiversity loss by 2030.
Ezana Casa, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Representative in Uganda, said the project represents more than a financial transaction, describing it as recognition of years of investment in institutions, technical capacity and monitoring systems. “The results behind the payment were built over years through sound policy, forest inventories, safeguards and technical capacity—the groundwork that allows climate ambition to translate into measurable outcomes,” Casa said.
Casa said the funding should not be viewed as an endpoint, but as seed capital to strengthen Uganda’s forest monitoring, reporting and verification systems, improve benefit-sharing arrangements and align REDD+ activities with the country’s Nationally Determined Contributions. He said the funds had already been received by FAO Uganda in its capacity as the GCF-accredited entity. Casa said FAO is working with the Ministry of Water and Environment, the lead government agency, to implement the project under an agreed implementation plan.
He stressed that the benefits should reach forest-dependent communities, indigenous people, smallholder farmers, private forest owners and other actors along the forestry value chain. Casa said the project would support interventions targeting rural livelihoods and food security while addressing household dependence on biomass energy, which contributes to pressure on forests. The REDD+ project is expected to benefit about 21,000 rural households, representing roughly 105,000 people, across 17 priority districts in the central and eastern regions, including areas around Mount Elgon.
Casa said the selected districts were identified as being at high risk of deforestation based on previous assessments and as areas without ongoing forestry-related projects. The project will be overseen through a multi-stakeholder governance structure bringing together government, civil society, the private sector and indigenous people, with the Ministry of Water and Environment and FAO serving as co-chairs.
Dr Alfred Okot Okidi, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Water and Environment, said the project demonstrates international confidence in Uganda’s commitment to sustainable forest management. He said the funding also challenges the country to confront the growing pressure of climate change and human activity on forests while ensuring that communities benefit fairly from both carbon and non-carbon benefits.
Okidi pledged that implementation would be coordinated, inclusive and transparent. Joseph Mugaga Kirule, the National Project Coordinator, said the funding followed more than a decade of preparatory work dating back to 2009. He said Uganda spent years building the institutional capacity and technical systems required to qualify for results-based payments under the Cancun Elements and Warsaw Framework. According to Kirule, the funding will support two major areas of work: strengthening government institutions, particularly the REDD+ Secretariat, to improve data collection, forest monitoring and enforcement of regulations, and delivering direct benefits to communities living in and around forests.
The project will also support climate-smart agriculture through farmer training, distribution of resilient seed varieties and promotion of sustainable wood-energy technologies, including efficient woodlots and improved household energy sources. These interventions are intended to reduce pressure on natural forests while improving rural livelihoods and strengthening food security.
Stakeholders said the significance of the project goes beyond the 113 billion shillings secured, arguing that it demonstrates how credible and well-documented climate action can unlock further international financing. The project is therefore expected to serve both as a reward for Uganda’s past efforts to reduce forest-related emissions and as a foundation for scaling up forest conservation, community livelihoods and climate action across the country-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
