Back-to-Bark

The Back to Bark project addresses vulnerabilities intensified by Climate change:  including economic exclusion, especially of women and youths, food and energy insecurity, and Pollution - through a traditional craft.  Uganda’s bark cloth, recognized by UNESCO as ‘a masterpiece of the world's intangible heritage’, has local, regional and international markets in the apparel and hand-craft industry.   Bark-cloth serves as an entry point to achieve economic, environmental and social benefits through a multiplier effect - by focusing on improving its production technology that has suffered decades of neglect; promoting cultivation of F. Natalensis as an agroforestry tree; training youth and women groups to sustainably harvest and process the bark and add value; and, producing high-value raw material for the international market.  Because of its global value-chain its promotions will benefit millions of people along it.  Beyond this, mitigation and adaption benefits from cultivation of F. natalensis have a global impact.

Poverty that is characterized by social exclusion, socio-economic marginalization, food and energy insecurity. 

We are working with small-holder farming households characterized by rain-fed subsistence agriculture.  Women comprise the major production force and bear the biggest burden to sustain households in terms of food and cooking energy needs.  ADAPT+ has worked with women groups mainly addressing their cooking energy needs and through these interaction have been able to exchange views that can address key needs of the target group (women and youths).  The solution will provide economic opportunities, supplement cooking energy needs and improve food security.

The solution is promoting Bark-cloth, a traditional apparel from F.natalensis trees. Uganda’s bark-cloth has international recognition after UNESCO proclaimed it ‘a masterpiece of the world's intangible heritage’.  Women and youth groups will be trained in the processing of the bark-cloth and to make the various crafts that have national, regional and international markets.  The groups will also be supported to directly export the apparel to interested organizations world-wide.   Beyond this farmers can sustainably harvest the branches for energy tree provides ecological services and fodder in agro-forestry setting. This makes the household energy-secure; increases farm resilience; reduces deforestation and provides additional income to the farmer.  The concept is based on our experience and other studies which indicate that rural households in Uganda depend on firewood and cannot easily change to adopt other alternatives.  As the IECS addresses shortcomings associated with use of firewood and traditional stoves, specifically indoor pollution, wastage and resultant deforestation, the nexus provides a winning formula to the farmer and the environment. 

Invented around the 13th century, bark-cloth was a main textile used for clothing, beddings as well other traditional functions.  When cotton products were introduced around the 19th century, bark-cloth was sidelined as a low-class product and mainly preserved for traditional rituals.  There was also a deliberate effort to further create a negative image of the product which has persisted up to today.  Dropping an indigenous technology totally for a foreign technology created a dependency syndrome and suffocated further innovation, made citizens mere consumers, and blocked chances of further developing our own home-made technology.  Rejuvenation of this technology coupled by UNESCO’s recognition of Uganda’s bark-cloth as ‘a master piece of Intangible heritage’ promise renewed hope towards sustainable development.  The solution is using the traditional technology to address current challenges that include social exclusion, socio-economic marginalization, food and energy insecurity. 

Bark cloth is made from the bark of the Ficus natalensis, commonly known as Mutuba tree.  Each piece is processed from the inner bark of one tree.  It is recommended to debark as soon as the leaves turn yellowish, especially during the rainy season.

The process begins with scraping off the external surface layer to expose the fresh raw inner bark.  A vertical slit is made using a knife from top to bottom. With the help of a banana leaf stalk, the bark is easily peeled off starting from the base, slowly moving upwards. The exposed area of the trunk is sometimes smeared with cow dung as a form of treatment and wrapped with fresh banana leaves. It is unwrapped after four days, leaving it to regenerate.

The fresh bark cloth is soaked in hot water for 30 minutes to soften it. It is then ready for moderate pounding with grooved wooden mallets, which increases the size of the cloth up to more than four times the original size. The bark cloth is sun-dried for three days and it turns into a deep red brown colour with a distinct smell.

The innovation uses simple, easy to adapt steps to address the most pressing common challenges among African small-holder farming rural households:  By creating demand for bark-cloth and imparting skills for processing and value addition the farmers voluntarily plant F. Natalensis Trees thereby checking deforestation and environmental degradation since the planted trees also provides cooking energy for the household; increase farm as well as household resilience because of ecological functions of F.natalensis trees and services like fodder; addressing gender equality issues as it gets men to be involved in household energy generation and collection; diversifies a farmer’s income through sale of bark-cloth which further motivates farmers to conserve; and, preserves indigenous knowledge of bark-cloth making.Women and the youth that usually have limited economic opportunities will be engaged in the bark-cloth value-chain gaining economic independence in addition to the aforementioned benefits.

The solution is currently at pilot serving 50 people; in one year the solution plans to reach 5000 people and in five years to reach 500,000 people

ADAPT+ is currently positioned to be a main supplier of bark-cloth within the country.   In order to achieve this goal, ADAPT+ is working on the following strategies:

• Developing bark-cloth farms functioning as mother gardens and demonstration/learning centers;
• Developing an effective Farmer Extension out-grower scheme;
• Developing strategic partnerships to promote bark-cloth production & trade;
• Developing a team of bark-cloth artisans;
• Developing Bark-cloth production Nodes in different parts of  Uganda;
• Developing sustainable Markets nationally, regionally and globally.
• Continuous research and innovations in bark-cloth production technology.

Technical barriers include ineffective Extension to advise farmers on best methods of F. natalensis cultivation and other sustainable agriculture methods; export knowledge to regional and international markets - Developing a market infrastructure for bark-cloth and related products at national, regional and global levels; and, carbon markets.

Low financing has limited acquisition of land and farm investments to establish F. natalensis mother gardens to be sources of planting materials;

i) Extension to advise farmers on best methods of F. natalensis cultivation and other sustainable agriculture methods: ADAPT+ is developing internal capacity to provide extension services to farming households through training of trainers and a sustainable extension system

ii) Developing a market infrastructure for bark-cloth and related products at national, regional and global levels; and, carbon markets: This is a service we plan to outsource from specialized marketing and carbon financing companies.

iii) Land and farm investments to establish F. natalensis mother gardens to be sources of planting materials: We are using two main approaches to this: Mobilising funds to  buy; and leasing from institutions and individuals that may be having land they are not currently using.

Full-time staff – 3

Part-time staff – 5

The Team will be led by three people: David, Ruth and Olivia

David’s experience spans from being a founder of Nature Palace Foundation (NPF) www.npfug.net and Nature Palace Botanic Garden, to being a member of a team of experts appointed by Uganda’s ministry of Education providing technical assistance to the Directorate of Industrial Training.  He has championed grassroots initiatives for Climate Change adaptation and environmental sustainability – with special focus on appropriate clean-cooking energy alternatives, energy-saving technologies, climate-resilient agriculture models; innovative species conservation programs and market-based approaches to conservation challenges.  He has worked through the ranks of Extension worker, Project coordinator and Project Manager for Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA-Uganda), and as Assistant Consultancy officer, Development Consultants International (DCI) before becoming Director Nature Palace Foundation and Founding Director/CEO ADAPT PLUS.  

Ruth is a designer and community trainer.  She has for the last three years been involved in training community groups in environmentally-friendly income generating projects that include hand-crafts from biodegradable materials; re-usable biodegradable conference name holders etc.  Ruth is an accountant by training which enables her to provide record keeping and simple financial management skills to trained groups.

Olivia is a teacher by professional and an entrepreneur.  She has initiated a successful beauty and design business that also involves training.  She is well suited in training women and girls something that she has been doing successfully for the last five years.

Nature Palace Foundation (NPF) is community-based Foundation supporting Community-based Initiatives in Natural Resources Management, Livelihood Improvement and Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation.  NPF’s vision is ‘A world where all people are leading sustainable livelihoods’. NPF addresses critical areas for community-based adaptation which include Food Production Systems; Sustainable Energy Access; Indigenous Knowledge preservation and promotion; and, Eco-system-based Conservation.

NPF is mobilizing community groups to participate in the program and is supplementing extension needs.