What the Service Covers
- Site suitability assessment. Soil depth, drainage, slope, previous land use and rainfall zone — and an honest answer about whether the species you want will thrive there.
- Planting plan and layout. Spacing chosen for the product you intend to sell, plus firebreaks, access roads and boundary setbacks marked out before anyone starts digging.
- Seedling sourcing and inspection. We buy from nurseries we have inspected, and we reject stock at delivery. Root-bound, over-tall or diseased seedlings are the most common avoidable cause of first-year failure in Uganda.
- Land preparation. Clearing, stump treatment where coppicing competition is a risk, sub-soiling on compacted ground, and pit digging to specification.
- Planting. Timed to the rains, with supervised crews and per-pit fertiliser placement where soils require it.
- Beating up. Replacement of failed seedlings within the first weeks, which is what turns an 80% strike rate into a 95% stocking.
- Aftercare. Weeding rounds, pest monitoring — particularly Leptocybe invasa in eucalyptus — fire protection, pruning and thinning as the stand develops.
- Reporting. Photographic records, survival counts and a written update after each operation, so absentee landowners can actually see what happened.
What to Plant
The right species is a function of your site, your rotation tolerance and your market. In broad terms:
| Objective | Common choice | Indicative first rotation |
|---|---|---|
| Utility & building poles, fast cash | Eucalyptus (E. grandis, GU/GC clones) | 5–8 years |
| Fuelwood & charcoal, drier sites | Eucalyptus camaldulensis | 5–7 years |
| Sawn timber, construction | Pine (Pinus caribaea, P. patula) | 15–20 years |
| High-value timber, long horizon | Indigenous — musizi, muvule, mahogany | 20 years and beyond |
| Boundary, shade, agroforestry | Mixed indigenous and fruit species | Ongoing benefit |
Detailed species and clone guidance is in our eucalyptus species guide and pine plantation guide. For how many trees your land will hold, see eucalyptus trees per acre.
Why Plantings Fail in Uganda — and How We Prevent It
Across a decade of rescuing other people's woodlots, the same six causes recur:
- Planting into dry soil. Planting before the rains are established is the most common single cause of mass mortality. We wait, even when the client is impatient.
- Poor seedling stock. Root-bound or over-tall seedlings never recover. Rejecting a bad delivery costs a day; accepting one costs a season.
- No weeding. Grass competition in the first year suppresses growth more than any fertiliser can compensate for.
- Wrong site. Valley bottoms and waterlogged ground kill eucalyptus, and wetland planting carries regulatory exposure as well.
- No beating up. Gaps left unfilled become permanent yield loss and awkward harvesting.
- Fire. Uganda's dry seasons take unprotected young stands. Firebreaks are cheap; replanting is not.
How we contract
- We quote establishment per acre or per hectare against a written specification — spacing, species, pit size, fertiliser, weeding rounds.
- Aftercare is quoted as an annual figure so you can budget the full three years up front rather than being surprised in year two.
- We report survival at 3, 6 and 12 months with photographs and counts. If we miss the survival target for reasons within our control, we make it good.
Who We Plant For
- Individual landowners converting idle land into a productive woodlot
- Diaspora and absentee owners who need a managed service with real reporting, not promises over the phone
- Companies meeting compensatory planting or offset obligations from an ESIA condition
- Institutions — schools, churches, hospitals — establishing woodlots for fuel and future income
- NGOs and agencies running restoration and community woodlot programmes that need monitored survival, not planting-day photographs
Where We Work in Uganda
Our consultants are based in Wakiso, just outside Kampala, and work on sites across the country. We regularly deliver assignments in:
- Central Uganda: Kampala, Wakiso, Mukono, Mpigi, Luwero, Nakaseke, Mityana, Mubende, Kiboga, Masaka
- Western Uganda: Hoima, Masindi, Kibaale, Kyenjojo, Kabarole (Fort Portal), Bushenyi, Mbarara, Ntoroko, Kabale
- Northern Uganda: Gulu, Lira, Arua, Nebbi, Adjumani
- Eastern Uganda: Jinja, Mbale, Kapchorwa, Soroti, Iganga
For sites outside Central Uganda we typically combine a desk-based review with a single mobilised field visit, which keeps travel costs down without compromising the quality of the assessment.