Climate change is a significant time variation in weather patterns occurring over periods of time ranging from decades to millions of years. Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions, or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions. Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes, variations in solar radiation received by Earth, plate tectonics, and volcanic eruptions. Human activities such as industrialization and deforestation, have been identified as one of the most significant causes of recent climate change, often referred to as “global warming.”

Uganda is already experiencing negative impacts of the changing climate. Some of the indicators of climate change include recurring weather variability, floods, droughts and temperature changes. To use temperature change, for example, analysis of both minimum and maximum temperatures based on the standard seasons of December-January-February and May- June-July (Uganda Metrological Department, 2010) reveals that the rise in temperatures over the Northern parts of Uganda is relatively higher than in other parts hence in the coming decades Uganda’s agricultural households will continue to face significant challenges, including a deteriorating natural resource base, eroding ecosystem services, and reduced access to land due to a rapidly rising population, deforestation and industrialization.

While fully recognizing the importance of all of these factors, Maracha Community Development Centre (MarCDC) focuses on the additional pressure that Uganda’s agricultural households face as a result of current and potential future impacts of climate change. The systemic vulnerability of households stems from the fact that they depend heavily on crops whose value chains are sensitive to climate variability and change; any change in food production critically increases overall vulnerability in Uganda. For example, cassava is an essential part of the diet of the most vulnerable households in Northern Uganda and Uganda as a whole, and they sell a small portion of their harvest; yet this small amount of cassava they sell represents a significant source of cash for the household.

Maracha Community Development Centre (MarCDC) focuses on generating knowledge and sharing information related to climate change adaptation and ways of mitigating the causes and impact of climate change in Uganda. We therefore intend to:

1. Enhance awareness of reforestation and afforestation through setting up training programs to increase knowledge on trees of both local and international species.
2. Create a nursery that makes seedlings of various tree species available to everyone.