The Story of the Mvule Tree

Legend has it that the first Europeans interested in felling timber in Uganda visited Busoga in the 1880s. They came with their friends from Buganda and when they saw the enormous Mvule tree that was so plentiful in Busoga the "Bazungu" immediately recognized its potential for providing superb hardwood for construction and carpentry. They asked the Soga people if they might agree for a few of them to be cut down and the Soga, seeing no worth in the trees said, "Jamire Jeene" or "They grew by themselves."

Soon afterward a lucrative trade in timber began in Busoga with crafty businessmen from Buganda buying trees for a pittance. To this day the phrase "jamira jeene" is a polite nickname for the Basoga people.

The Basoga caught on soon enough and realized the value of their great trees with timber mills in many towns in Soga supplying enough wood for homes and tables across Uganda. The large trunks that grew nearly 50 feet before sprouting the first branch were indeed some of the world's finest timber trees. Early trees produced boards six feet in width! They were harvested continually and served Uganda well. The Mvule has given much, and now the time has come to give the Mvule to a new generation.

More than 100 years later the Mvule tree is severely threatened. Despite decades of valiant efforts by forestry officials, the Mvule is quickly disappearing as younger and younger trees fall to provide wood for furniture, building and charcoal.

There is little that can be done to replace the slow-growing Mvule because the trees do not grow in forests, but rather haphazardly across Basoga. Efforts to grow them in nurseries are not successful because of blight. The Mvule is a resilient tree once it reaches a certain age, but before that age it is easily threatened. Every systematic effort to replant Mvules has failed over the last 30 years. So why will we succeed? Read ahead and you’ll see why we are different and how we will pull it off.

On the Verge of Victory

We're as green as the next guy, but the thing about the Mvule Project that really makes us happy is not the trees . . . it's the kids. There is a famous Lusoga proverb that says, "Emiti emito n'ekibira." Literally, in English, that's "The young trees are the forest."

We pay people to plant mvule trees . . . or should we say, we pay kids? No we're not talking about child labor; for each mvule tree planted by a Ugandan village, we contribute to their nursery school. For each mvule tree that continues to live month after month, we contribute again and again. You'll learn how this works here.

So, as you contribute to the long-term health of a valuable Ugandan resource through the Mvule Project, you're also contributing to the long term health of Uganda’s most valuable resource: its children. The young trees are the forest!

One day, with your help, Uganda's children of today will wake up as adults with better surroundings, better education, and with children who will sit in the shade of mvule trees planted by your generation. We think that's worth doing.