Protecting children is climate action: How Ugandan women are restoring land and futures

Climate change in Uganda is already a child protection crisis, forcing children, especially girls, out of school and into greater risk as land degrades and resources disappear. Jeremiah Nyagah highlights how women-led land restoration through Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration is not only restoring ecosystems, but protecting children’s safety, nutrition, and futures, proving that protecting children is climate action.


On World Earth Day, more than a billion people around the globe are urged to reflect on the future of our planet and on their own power to change it. This year’s theme, “Our Power, Our Planet,” is a warning and a call to action because in countries like Uganda, the climate crisis already has a face; it is a child walking further each day to find firewood or a child pulled out of school because the land no longer feeds his/her family. Across rural Uganda, women and children rise before dawn to sustain households and food systems that the global economy takes for granted. Women plant, harvest, fetch water, gather fuel, care for families and pass on indigenous knowledge about soils, trees and weather. Children help where they can. Yet when land degrades and forests disappear, it is children who pay first and longest.

Climate breakdown, which is often discussed in abstract terms, emissions targets, adaptation finance, and global summits, is a lived reality for children. Degraded land means fewer crops, longer journeys for water and fuel, and greater exposure to violence and exploitation. In Uganda, adolescent girls are frequently forced to miss or abandon school to collect firewood from distant areas, increasing their risk of assault and early marriage. Environmental collapse is a child protection crisis hiding in plain sight. 

There is, however, a proven solution already taking root in rural communities, one that restores land, strengthens households and protects children at the same time. It is called Farmer‑Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR), a simple and low‑cost practice that allows indigenous trees to regrow from existing stumps and roots. Promoted by World Vision Uganda, FMNR requires little more than patience, local knowledge and secure land access, yet its impact is transformative. 

When land is restored, everything changes for children. Regenerated trees provide firewood, fruit and forest foods close to home, reducing the hours girls spend walking long distances for fuel. Shade cools schools and play areas as temperatures rise. Crops yield better harvests, meaning more diverse diets and less hunger. In short, nurturing the land becomes an act of child protection. 

Women are the driving force behind this transformation. Across World Vision programming areas in Uganda, more than 45,000 women now practise FMNR, with nearly 2,000 trained as community champions and trainers. They restore degraded farms, generate income from forest products and reinvest in their children’s futures, school fees, food, healthcare, and safety. This is what the Earth Day message of collective power looks like on the ground. 

But there is an uncomfortable truth we must confront: women are already doing the work of restoring the planet, yet systems continue to deny them the rights and resources they need to succeed. Millions of women in Uganda still lack secure land ownership or meaningful control over productive resources, despite constitutional guarantees. Customary practices frequently prioritise male inheritance, leaving women vulnerable and discouraging long‑term investment in land restoration. 

This is not merely an issue of gender equality; it is a failure of climate policy and child wellbeing. When women cannot control land, communities lose one of the most effective tools for resilience. Land degradation accelerates, yields decline and children’s rights to food, education and safety are steadily stripped away. Climate injustice is inherited by the youngest.

Earth Day reminds us that environmental protection is inseparable from social justice. Since its birth over 50 years ago, the movement has helped shape laws on clean air, clean water and biodiversity worldwide, driven by public action and moral courage. Today, that same courage is needed to place children at the centre of climate responses. 

Protecting the planet means protecting the conditions children need to survive and thrive, safe environments, nutritious food, education, and time to play and learn. 

In Uganda, World Vision is betting big on nature. Its ten‑year National FMNR Scale‑Up Plan aims to restore more than 2.2 million hectares of degraded land by 2033, turning a low‑cost, farmer‑led practice into a nationwide response to climate breakdown. The strategy pairs community‑driven regreening with partnerships across government line ministries (Ministry of Water and Environment, Ministry of Education and Sports), CSOs, Research & learning institutions, Alliances like the FMNR Network, and the private sector and pressure for policy change to move restoration from the margins to the mainstream.

FMNR shows that climate solutions do not have to be expensive or imported to be effective. They can be community‑led, child‑centred and rooted in local knowledge, if governments and institutions have the will to support them. 

This World Earth Day, policymakers, cultural leaders and donors must actively champion women’s land rights, invest in proven, gender‑responsive restoration approaches, and recognise that climate resilience begins at the household level, not the conference hall.

Women and children are already shaping a sustainable future, one regenerated tree at a time. The power exists. The blueprint exists. What remains is a choice: stand beside them, or allow another generation of children to inherit a planet further beyond repair.

About the author:
Jeremiah Nyagah is the National Director for World Vision Uganda, with a distinguished career in humanitarian work and international development spanning over 25 years. He has previously held various roles at Pathfinder International, Child Fund, and World Vision Kenya. As a leader, Jeremiah has served on several boards, including the Global Bag Project (Chairperson), Vision Fund Kenya (Member), Uganda Water and Sanitation NGO Network (UWASNET)-Chairperson, and currently, he is a board member of Vision Fund Uganda (VFU).