Bees and Trees is a youth-led social enterprise powered by the vision of creating communities where both people and nature flourish. We are saving nature and mending the climate by giving farmers an extra source of income in bee keeping and tree growing. Our head office is located in Kmapala, Uganda.

We fundraise, give modern bee hives to farmers, plant trees that act as forage for bees, and later buy honey back from our farmers. This alternative source of livelihood reduces the despair that usually drives farmers into encroaching on natural resources within the in Mt. Elgon National Park whenever their only source of livelihood (rain fed agriculture) is devastated by climate change disasters like floods, landslides and drought.

Our product is pure organic honey, and services include tree planting and green entrepreneurship trainings.

The Team:

Stephen Bright Sakwa - Co-Director

Samantha Natumanya - Co-Director

Sandra Namugabo - Program Officer

David Wandeba - IT Officer

Connie Olive Nalumansi - Finance Officer

Conservation & Community Impacts:

1. Providing an alternative source of livelihood: We train farmers about bee keeping and give them modern bee hives at no cost. We later buy honey back from them. The income from honey sales enables farmers to support their families; especially during periods when their crops are devastated by floods and drought.

2. Conservation: When we give farmers an extra source of income, we reduce the despair that usually drives them into encroaching on natural resources. This enables biodiversity to flourish.

3. Landscape restoration: The trees planted on farms to act as bee forage contribute to community re-greening, on-farm biodiversity, soil fertility and food security.

3. Climate action: By reducing encroachment on natural resources and planting trees, we create and maintain carbon sinks, which is a mitigation strategy for climate change.

4. Employment: Along our value chain, we create jobs for farmers as bee keepers, as well as employ young people as field officers, sales representatives, among other positions. This is reducing the burden of unemployment in Uganda.

5. Gender Equity: Our initiative is making sure that women get opportunities to lead or co-lead during our project activities. This is helping in ensuring that women voices are heard in decision making. 

Future Aims:

1. We are currently running a campaign known as “Bees for Hope” where we are fundraising for beehives to give to farmers. This will aid the scaling of our project. One can offer to donate a hive or two through the link https://chuffed.org/project/jebb3xedxljm
2. We have started honey harvesting, however we lack honey processing and storage equipment. We are developing a business plan that will enable us to seek for seed funding for this initiative.
3. We plan to train more youth and women in green enterprises such as establishment of tree nurseries, bee keeping and energy saving baskets in a bid to fight high unemployment rates in Uganda.
4. We also plan to scale our tree planting initiatives, with a focus on species which flower at different stages of the year; to give bees a constant supply of forage material.

Images provided.