Gertrude Kenyagi Kabusimbi, founder of Support for Women in Agriculture and Environment (SWAGEN) and WOCAN member was awarded the 2015 Wangari Maathai ‘Forest Champions’ Award at the XIV World Forest Congress.
The award recognizes outstanding contributions to preserve, restore and sustainably manage forests and to raise awareness of the key role forests play in supporting local communities, rural livelihoods, women and the environment.
Since 1994, Gertrude has been working with Uganda’s National Forest Authority to protect and promote the sustainable use of tropical forests in the country’s Mbarara and Ntungamo districts. With the help of the women of the community-based non-governmental organization Support for Women and Agriculture (SWAGEN), she has planted over one million trees in the Rwoho Natural Forest buffer zone. These activities have not only contributed to mitigation of and adaptation to climate change in Uganda, but also have generated the new sources of income for local communities through beekeeping, timber harvesting and sales of carbon offset credits.
Gertrude’s efforts have been key to preventing further forest loss from cattle ranching in Uganda Rwoho’s Forest.
She is also an observer on the Climate Investment Fund – Forest Investment Program. She sums up her opinion of her ‘Observer Status’ when she says, ‘Observers may be the weakest link in the CIF FIP but they are also the reservoir of strength for the whole Climate Change Control chain, for as the saying goes, the strength of a chain is in its weakest link. By opening up to the practitioners in form of Civil Society, CIF FIP has demonstrated its determination to defeat Climate Change.’
Ms. Kenyangi also serves as;
- the East Africa Region CSO representative to the Civil Society Mechanism Coordinating Committee, for engagement with UN FAO’s Committee on Food Security.
- Member of the Advisory Committee – 10 YFP Sustainable Livelihood Education Program (SLEP)