The Right Tree for the Right Place:
vegetationmap4africa and Uganda Tree Finder
Roeland Kindt, Paulo van Breugel, Erick Opiyo,
Jens-Peter Lillesø, Lars Graudal, Ramni Jamnadass,
Tor Vagen, Clement Okia, Daisy Ouya
World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)
University of Copenhagen (UCPH)

World Agroforestry Centre
(http://www.worldagroforestry.org/ )
Agroforestry is a dynamic, ecologically-based,
natural resource management practice that,
through the integration of trees on farms and
in the agricultural landscape, diversifies and
sustains production for increased social,
economic and environmental benefits.
Trees in forests
and on farms
Collaborative
programmes in
different ecoregions

http://www.wri.org/applications/maps/flr-atlas/#

The Right Trees for the Right Place
A. Trees for Products
B. Trees for Services
fruit firewood medicine income Sawn wood fodder
Soil fertility Carbon erosion watershed shade biodiversity
C. Trees for right place… Simple as ABC !?

Occurrences Species Percentage Cum. Percentage
300+ 1 0.1% 0.1%
200-299 3 0.3% 0.4%
100-199 31 3.1% 3.6%
50-99 63 6.4% 9.9%
30-49 107 10.9% 20.8%
10-29 184 18.7% 39.5%
1-9 220 22.3% 61.8%
0 376 38.2% 100.0%
All 985 100.0% 100.0%
Locations of 985 useful tree species
www.gbif.org
Biased locations … and some locations are wrong

vegetationmap4africa
http://www.vegetationmap4africa.org/Vegetation_map.html

vegetationmap4africa
http://www.vegetationmap4africa.org/Vegetation_map.html
Web-based maps

www.vegetationmap4africa.org
selection of tree species

www.vegetationmap4africa.org
selection of tree species

www.vegetationmap4africa.org
selection of tree species

www.vegetationmap4africa.org
selection of tree species
Each species is linked to web-based
databases such as the ICRAF agroforestree
Database, the Plant Resources of Tropical
Africa (PROTA), the CABI Invasive Species
Compendium, Tropical Forages or FAO’s
ECOCROP database
26,135 plant species
33,813 including synonyms
242,505 hyperlinks (excluding ‘search’)

www.vegetationmap4africa.org
Google Earth version

www.vegetationmap4africa.org
smart phone version (via Locus app)
Location of the user

Uganda Tree Finder
• App developed with IUCN in KNOWFOR project (DFID)
• Stand-alone app for basic smart phones (soon officially
released on Google Play Store – currently final testing)

Uganda Tree Finder
• App developed with IUCN in KNOWFOR project (DFID)
• Same functions of selecting useful tree species
• Option to capture and upload species and vegetation images
(citizen science, confirm/contest species presence, restoration
monitoring)

Uganda Tree Finder
Pilot testing in Mt. Elgon region with IUCN, ICRAF and
restoration partners (Uganda government, NGOs)
Uganda Tree Finder
All agreed that
app is useful
and user-
friendly

Some other application domains
Biodiversity monitoring
BiodiversityR
Open-source
R package

The Right Tree for the
Right Place:
vegetationmap4Africa
and Uganda Tree
Finder
Thank you very much for your attention – Roeland Kindt
We highly appreciate our donor support, including DFID, the
Rockefeller Foundation, Danida, BMZ, UNEP-GEF, the European
Commission, IFAD, SIDA/SAREC, VVOB, Australian Centre for
International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), and the Forests, Trees
and Agroforestry (FTA) and CCAFS Research Programs of the CGIAR
The vegetationmap4africa team and partners