The Legal Position Comes First
Three things to establish before any design work
- The applicable protection zone for your specific watercourse, wetland or lakeshore. Widths differ by water body and the provisions have been revised over time.
- Whether restoration itself needs approval. Works in or beside a wetland can require authorisation even when the intent is restorative.
- Who currently uses the land and under what claim. Wetland margins are frequently cultivated, and a restoration plan that ignores that is a plan for a conflict.
We are not the regulator. We help you get these confirmed in writing, then design around them — see our environmental consultancy and ESIA services.
What to Plant in a Buffer
Not eucalyptus. This is the one species question with a clear answer. Eucalyptus in a riparian strip draws directly on the water resource, is frequently restricted by law, and generates exactly the objections that make catchment work contentious — see eucalyptus and water.
| Zone | Function | Planting approach |
|---|---|---|
| Water's edge | Bank stabilisation, shading | Indigenous riparian species and appropriate grasses. Often best left to regenerate naturally under protection. |
| Buffer strip | Filtering runoff, sediment trapping | Mixed indigenous species, dense ground cover, no cultivation |
| Outer buffer / transition | Reducing pressure on the inner zone | Productive agroforestry — fodder, fruit, stakes — giving people a reason to respect the boundary |
| Upper catchment slopes | Slowing runoff, holding soil | Contour planting, grass strips, terrace stabilisation, woodlots on the least productive ground |
That outer transition zone is the part most plans omit and the part that most determines whether the inner buffer survives.
Erosion Control That Works
- Work on the contour, not up and down the slope. Tree lines, grass strips and terrace edges all follow the contour.
- Combine woody and grass cover. Trees alone leave gaps at ground level where the erosion actually happens.
- Do not clear the whole slope at once. Phase it, so there is always cover.
- Address gullies structurally, not by planting into them — check dams and stabilisation first, planting afterwards.
- Control grazing. On most degraded African slopes this is the actual cause; planting without addressing it repeats the failure.
Where We Work
Based in Wakiso, just outside Kampala, working across Uganda and taking regional assignments in East and Central Africa.