Name: Mapping Kampalas cooler, cleaner future—one tree at a time
Uploaded: 2025-11-04T15:49:21.217Z
Duration: 4 min 9 s
Description: Urban foresters in the Ugandan capital are assessing tree numbers and health, as the city expands its tree cover to beat the heat and improve air quality.

Urban foresters in the Ugandan capital are assessing tree numbers and health, as the city expands its tree cover to beat the heat and improve air quality.

Kampala

Kampala, Uganda, has been conducting a comprehensive tree inventory since 2016, revealing that only 20% of its trees are native species. Urban foresters, including Nelson Tuyambaze, are mapping and monitoring trees to assess their health and environmental impact, while also analyzing air quality data to address pollution and heat stress.

The city has set ambitious goals to triple its tree cover, enforce new green infrastructure regulations, and replace any trees cut during construction. Community initiatives like the Roots Campaign aim to plant 200 million trees across Uganda by 2026, and Kampala has been recognized as a 'Tree City' by the UN Food and Agricultural Organization for four consecutive years.

Mapping Kampala's cooler, cleaner future—one tree at a time

This man's job description includes hugging trees, with his measuring band. Nelson Tuyambaze is an urban forester in Uganda's capital Kampala, and one of the people tasked with mapping the city's trees. Kampala started an inventory in 2016. One surprising finding was that only 20% of the capital's trees are native species. Across the city, urban foresters like Nelson are still busy logging existing trees, monitoring their size and health. When I'm examining the tree here, if you get the tree, look at the physical appearance. It's morphology. How does it look like? Is it very green? Is the original color changing? How is the bark? Is the bark okay? How are the roots? You get? Energy trees play a key role in cooling down urban areas, where heat can build up quickly. They also improve air quality and bind CO2. So trees are now seen as a vital part of Kampala's infrastructure. With the data collected from tree mapping, researchers can assess the effect on the city and make improvements. With his colleague Susan Nalwada, Nelson also assesses data collected by air quality sensors positioned across the city. Fine particulate matter emitted by cars, open fires and kerosene stoves all intensify the heat. We have what we call soot, like black carbon. And it is always in the troposphere. That is like the nearest level of the atmosphere, like 8 to 15 kilometers in the atmosphere. So it is concentrated in the atmosphere. And once the sunlight hits, it gets absorbed in that soot. And when it absorbs in that soot, we start experiencing the heat here on our planet. And such a sensor is there to show us that. And when we experience such heat stress, we have to come up with interventions. Action is already underway. Kampala plans to plant thousands of trees in areas that could become urban heat islands. The city wants to triple its tree cover and has introduced strict new building regulations. There are guidelines on green infrastructure. In case you want to put up maybe a house of such square meters, there is a percentage of green that is located there, which you must leave. In case that construction is going to cut more than 10 trees, also the guidelines are there. For every tree cut, the developer will have to replace with two trees. When new trees are planted, it's also important to ensure they survive and grow. These students have come together to plant trees as part of the Roots Campaign, which aims to plant 200 million trees across Uganda by 2026. It's getting schools, institutions and members of the public involved. The effort is already bearing fruit. The UN Food and Agricultural Organization has named the Ugandan capital a tree city four years in a row, one of only two African cities. I'm driven by that kind of inspiration. That gave us goros, that gave us marriages, and I hope with more resources, of which Uganda is committed to advance the climate change agenda, more resources will be allocated in green, and we green the city together. And Nelson is passing on his drive and dedication, so that Kampala and other cities in Uganda can become even greener.

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