15º

Location

Kibale Forest Buffer Zone, Kamwenge District, Western Uganda

Project Details

Alex's Organic Farm is a 3-acre family farm on the Kibale National Park buffer zone in western Uganda, with an additional 10 acres open for planting. Alex, a teacher and linguist speaking six languages including Rukiga, Kiswahili, Luganda, and Runyankole, has worked this land for 30 years and transformed it into an organic demonstration site after joining the Chris Roberts Forest Foundation pioneer farmer program. The farm integrates cocoa, coffee, macadamia, papaya, tea, beans, corn, and diverse vegetables in a mixed agroforestry system using only organic methods with animal manure from chickens, ducks, and goats. Six beehives along the forest boundary deter elephants while producing honey and pollinating crops. Alex serves as an encyclopedia for the surrounding community, teaching neighbors to abandon chemical herbicides and live harmoniously with wildlife including chimpanzees and elephants. His vision is to develop the farm into Alex's Cocoa Farm Campsite, a homestay where visitors from around the world can experience traditional meals, local culture, and conservation education on the forest edge.

To demonstrate that organic family farming on the Kibale Forest buffer zone can produce diverse food and income while coexisting peacefully with chimpanzees and elephants. Alex learned from CRF how to convert bush and waste into manure, conserve water, sort waste, plant buffer crops like tea to deter elephants, and use beehives as natural elephant deterrents. His purpose extends to the next generation through his son who is pursuing a master's in environmental science and will continue teaching the community about conservation. Alex envisions developing the farm into an eco-tourism homestay where global visitors experience traditional life on the forest edge.

I want to make Alex's Cocoa Farm Campsite where visitors from all over the world come here and experience different culture systems, the way people have lived, traditional meals, and learn about conservation on the forest edge. My son is taking environmental science for his master's degree, and when I am gone he will continue teaching the community about conservation. My vision is to continue keeping Uganda green and my area green so the next generation can see the good of what we have done. I want more beehives to deter elephants so we can live peacefully with animals. I want a solar irrigation system so we can farm throughout the year. I want my neighbors to stop spraying chemicals. I have already changed several minds and I will keep teaching until every farmer understands that you can prosper without poisoning the land.

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