THE TREE
The International Small Group and Tree Planting Program
VOLUME 1. ISSUE NO. 82 & 83 OCTOBER- NOVEMBER 2016
The TREE is a monthly newsletter Published by TIST Uganda, a project area of The International Small Group and Tree Planting Program.
MISSION STATEMENT:
TIST Uganda is a community initiative dedicated to empowering small groups of subsistence farmers to combat the devastating effects of deforestation, poverty and drought.
OBJECTIVE STATEMENT:
Combining sustainable development with carbon sequestration,TIST supports the reforestation efforts of over 25,000 subsistence farmers. Sales of carbon credits generate participant income while TIST today also addresses Agriculture, HIV/AIDS, Nutrition and Fuel Wood challenges.
ADDRESS:
TIST Uganda. Katungu Hill, Bushenyi Town, P.O. Box 232, Bushenyi, Uganda, East Africa. Website: www.tist.org, info@i4ei.org
In this Issue: ‐
- Cluster Leaders Roles and Responsibilities
- Rukungiri District Farmers Excited about first carbon payments
- Raised pots in a Nursery bed - Expansion Process
‐ TIST New Small Group Payment Plan
- Northern Uganda Seminar.
CLUSTER LEADERS ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITY
Cluster Leaders, Co-leaders, and Accountability people serve for a period of 4 months. After 4 months of service, the Cluster leader rotates out. The Coleader becomes the Leader while the Accountability person becomes the Co-leader. Women and men alternate in the elections – if the Accountability Person is a man, the next one elected will be a woman. Your Cluster should democratically elect a new Accountability person. Leadership and Governance in your Cluster - Cluster elections are important and mandatory for all TIST Clusters.
Description of Cluster Leadership Roles:
Roles of a Leader
1. Should be a servant to the whole cluster and exemplify TIST Values.
2. Leads/facilitates cluster activities: coordinates cluster meeting, quantification and training schedules with other servant leaders.
3. Motivates Groups to achieve big results, including planting trees and practicing CF. Helps the Cluster to remain strong and united
4. Helps plan for well-organized Cluster meetings with other servant leaders and making sure the meetings are properly led and trained
5. Works with Accountability Person to ensure that Cluster Meeting and Accounting records are kept properly.
6. Works with Accountability Person to ensure monthly Cluster reports and Accounts reports are sent and are accurate
7. Helps recruit more Small Groups to be registered
8. Helps Small Groups have their Green House Gas contracts signed, scanned and uploaded
9. Welcomes and introduces any new visitor who might attend the meeting
10. For payments: gets vouchers and other materials before Cluster meeting. Works with Accountability Person to make sure the proper payment process is followed, and communicate any questions or problems to TIST leaders and Payment coordinators.
11. Reminds Small Group members of the next meeting
Roles of a Co-leader:
1. Takes over when the leader is not there. A coleader is to serve both the cluster members and the cluster leader.
2. Helps during Cluster Meetings in keeping time
3. Takes records during the cluster meeting.
4. Reads the previous minutes to the meeting
5. Keeps record of the minutes and discussion held in the cluster
6. Helps train newly elected Accountability People
Roles of an Accountability Person:
1. Receives Cluster Budget and announces budget received and spent at each Cluster meeting
2. Works with the Cluster to plan how to use the Cluster Budget to achieve big results
3. Keeps and maintains Cluster records in an organized Cluster record book, accurately and in proper condition
4. Allows inspection of Cluster Records to Cluster members and TIST leaders
5. Sends both Monthly Cluster meeting and Accounting reports every month
6. Trains the next accountability person
7. Helps and supports other servants to serve the Small Groups
8. During payments: hands out vouchers to groups with 2 members present, reviews vouchers, communicates with payment support coordinators, and follows the payment process accurately and honestly
Farmers after cluster meeting in BwambaraRukungiri
“Rukungiri District Farmers Excited about First Carbon Payments”
Rukungiri TIST Farmers were excited after receiving their first carbon payments. A total of 9 million shillings has been paid to (13) groups in the Sub-counties of Bugangari and Bwambara in Rukungiri District. Farmers lined up to receive payment from the TIST. The TIST programme has operated in the area for three years. Farmers were excited after waiting for two years, now they have seen the results of the hard work from tree planting. Rev. Tiwangye, a community trainer had this to say,“I encourage all farmers from Rukungiri to plant more trees so they can receive the gift that we have been given as a community. We are among the few selected districts in Uganda with the opportunity to benefit from Carbon Money.” Lawyer Katusi said, “I have worked on many platforms. TIST has been the first programme in the area that will help fight poverty through environmental protection in Rukungiri. I have received 845,000UGX as the first payment. My group received 1.9 million UGX in total. This is a good start and the next carbon payment will have accumulated since the trees will have increased in size. I hope to receive more Carbon payments.”
By Jennifer Turyatemba
Farmers in Bwambara –Rukungiri District happily receiving their tree payments
RAISED POTS IN A NUSERY BED (RAISED NUSERY BED)
The traditional system of arranging pots on the ground can produce seedlings with weak roots. This is because the roots coil up inside the plastic pot. At transplanting, the roots can be weak and therefore not easily establish in the ground. To avoid this it is recommended to establish seedlings in open bottom tubes and place them on raised beds. A raised bed can easily be made from a wooden frame and wire mesh. These allow automatic root pruning because when the roots get to the container bottom they naturally drop off (called air root pruning). This means that roots do not get injured through normal root pruning methods. The roots then tend to strengthen without growing further. This produces a healthy root system and the seedling has a higher chance to establish faster in the field. It also eliminates the need for labour to do root pruning, a practice that is often forgotten or done too late with serious damage on the roots. Weed control under the raised beds is also easier.
Easy weed and root control raised Nursery beds
EXPANSION PROCESS
Expansion in TIST refers to the introduction of TIST activities in an area where they were not before. This means that TIST activities will be started in a completely new area or in a region that TIST has been operational but the target farmers were not members.
Guideline steps for proper expansion:
1. First contact is the first time participants/farmers hear about TIST either from a Seminar, an in-house training, visited by a TIST Trainer/ Coordinator or re-invited to visit TIST, radio programs, newspapers/newsletters or through cluster multiplication.
2.Creating awareness and recruitment is where the person(s) who had contact in one of the above ways goes out and reaches other people to inform them about TIST and try to recruit them into TIST. Follow up should be done to know the progress.
3.Training and application- after recruitment small group members who want to join, come together to a central place and start receiving training. This meeting point is called a Cluster meeting. Cluster meetings should be held once a month on a day that the Cluster members agree to meet together. Follow up should be done to ensure the process is going well.
4.Formation of clusters- is a combination of 30-50 small groups that are within walking distance and can meet once a month and receive training from a TIST trainer or a Cluster servant. Follow up should be done at this stage to ensure that Clusters are formed in the right way.
5.Baselines→→Registration→→Quantificat ion- These three items go hand in hand but one after the other in that respective order because once Small Groups have applied, they need to be baselined so that the baseline quantifier can verify if the Small Group has enough land to plant a minimum of 5,000 trees. After they are satisfied with land rights and size, they go ahead and register the group. After registration, then their trees can be quantified. After these three actions are complete, there are follow-ups carried out through audits.
6.Results on website- After step 1-5 above, these results are posted on the website and can be audited through desk audits and field audits
NORTHERN UGANDA SEMINAR
TIST Expansion had its first seminar in Gulu from 22nd to 28th October 2016. Sixty farmers attended this seminar from (9) districts of Northern and Northeast Uganda. Facilitators included our CAAC President, Mr. Ben Henneke and his wife Mrs. Vannesa Henneke, (6) Kenyan facilitators, and(7) Ugandan facilitators. The topics included the carbon business, What TIST does, TIST benefits, how TIST operates, TIST Values and why they matter. These were done through small group discussions. All the participants who attended promised to go back and mobilize more people to join TIST and plant trees.The seminar was a success because all the topics were covered and farmers went back home eager to start and make TIST a success in their area.
By Barigye Pamela
TIST NEW SMALL GROUP PAYMENT PLAN
Clean Air Action Corporation will be paying the TIST Small Groups on an Annual basis. In order to qualify for payments, the Small Groups will need to:
• H ave a minimum of 500 live trees;
• B e quantified within the past 18 months;
• N ot have been paid in last 12 months; and
• S end at least two Small Group members to the Cluster meeting to receive the Voucher;
• H ave all Small Group members review and sign the Voucher; and,
• H ave at least three Small Group members present to receive payment. They will receive a voucher that shows them the number of live trees at the last Quantification, and the calculation of a yearly pre-payment based on those trees, at $.02 per tree. They will be paid electronically at the following Cluster meeting. The Voucher will also show the Small Group the number of tonnes of CO2 their trees have sequestered since they were planted, and the number of tonnes that have been verified to date. The Verified tonnes are the Small Group's "Inventory". The number of tonnes Verified will be used to calculate the 'net revenues' on a per tonne basis. The net revenues will be calculated in the following way on an annual basis:
• Clean Air Action Corporation shall provide audited financial statements for the prior year including all sources of income and expenses for the TIST Program;
• If CAAC has achieved a pre-tax profit for that year, it will notify each TIST Program country of the tonnes sold from that country, and provide a detail of the income and costs for that country;
• CAAC will provide a calculation of 'net revenues' for each country; and,
• CAAC will provide a calculation of the '70% of net revenues' per Verified tonne for each country;
• CAAC will provide a voucher to each Small Group showing the '70% of net revenues' for the Verified tonnes that were sold from their Inventory less the pre-payments already received; and,
• Upon proper Small Group signatures, CAAC will pay the voucher amount to the Small Group. We believe this new payment approach will fairly distribute to each TIST Small Group the