Through my many years of close collaboration with smallholder farmers in Uganda, I have come to understand how important their role is for a sustainable planet. Supporting them simultaneously means creating a more just and sustainable world for all of us.
Initiative
Creating sustainable livelihoods for smallholder farmers, preserving rainforests and combating climate change
Impact
Since 2018, Fairventures has distributed over 1,8 million seedlings and worked with over 6,500 smallholder farmers in Uganda
James’ journey as a ChanceMaker began with a formative experience: one evening, he came home to find his mother cooking over a fire fueled by bean husks. Growing up, he had only known these husks as mulch for banana and coffee gardens. Seeing them used as a substitute for firewood puzzled him. When he asked his mother about it, she explained that all the surrounding land had been converted to farmland – not a single forest remained from which wood could be gathered. She was also convinced that growing trees on her land would reduce her crop yields. And even if she had a separate plot for trees, the native trees from which seedlings could have been grown had long since been felled for brick production.
This experience stayed with James and sparked his determination to take action. As a young forestry graduate, he dedicated himself to reforestation – driven by a clear desire to work directly with local communities and build genuine, trust-based relationships with smallholder farmers.
Today, he is doing exactly that as Operations Lead for our partner Fairventures in Uganda. Drawing on years of listening closely to smallholder farmers and understanding their challenges firsthand, James leads a team of 40 – united by a shared vision: restored landscapes, thriving communities, and forests that flourish once more. Places where smallholder farmers earn a reliable income and young people find real opportunities.
The Initiative
For over 10 years, Fairventures Worldwide has been supporting smallholder farmers in Uganda and Indonesia in reforesting degraded land. Their holistic agroforestry approach combines agriculture and forestry by cultivating high-yield intercropping crops such as cocoa and nuts alongside trees on the same land. By planting fast-growing native tree species that are in demand in the timber industry, farmers are provided with additional income opportunities. This holistic approach, which integrates economic, ecological, and social aspects, transforms villages with high poverty rates into sustainable habitats for people and nature.
Together with James Thembo and his team, Fairventures Worldwide is committed to forest restoration, strengthening community livelihoods, sustainable value chains, as well as training and coordinating Farmer Field Schools.
Vision
Healthy forests as climate solutions – small-scale farmers become pioneers in the fight against climate change.
Program & Activities
Fairventures works with small-scale farmers and local institutions – such as schools, churches, community councils, and local NGOs – in various regions of Uganda and Indonesia.
Every year, new smallholder farmers are recruited by the field teams. In the Farmer Field Schools, farmers receive personalised advice to determine the best reforestation strategy and practical training in effective agroforestry practices. Seedlings from community nurseries are then distributed at the start of the rainy season.
The field teams support the farmers in planting and accompany them until harvest. All planting areas are documented. Comprehensive monitoring by the farmers tracks the growth of the trees, and replanting is done where necessary.
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