Ombuga Grasland Tree Planting Project

Bäume für Menschen – Trees for the World® has been participating at the Ombuga Grassland Tree Planting Project (OGTPP) since 2002. The project is led by the Ministry for agriculture, water and sylviculture of Namibia.
The goal is to reforest 66.000 hectares of dry broadleaf forest. At the moment a feasibility study in the second and ultimate phase is run on the project. The goal of the feasibility study is to compare the ecological and technical aptitude of different tree species and trees of different origins, such as seed of the larger Ondangwa-area versus seed coming from other regions. The goal is to prove their aptitude for large-scale reafforestation and to check the different cultivation technics and methods.
During the last eight years about 250000 seedlings of diverse species and origin were planted on 11 plots of 2 to 60 hectares using a special test design. For these tests we have produced and delivered 60% of the plants, using the latest growing methods such as airpruning. Many of the test plants have also been planted by us on the test area. Thanks to the consequent development of the airprune technology we have managed to drop the rate of mortality of the seedlings to under 7 % despite the difficult conditions on the plots.
The study subdivides into an experimental part, including the evaluation of the success in reafforestation at different locations or different provenience and species or different modes of cultivation – and an interconnected theory part, including the forecast of socioeconomic impact.
These studies are realized simultaneously and they form an integrated research approach. In cooperation with the University of Göttingen we are responsible for the reafforestation monitoring, i. e. the supervision and scientific analysis.
The first phase of the feasibility study, which only included tests with crop plants, was completed in 2009, several scientific analyses are still in progress. In the current second phase of the feasibility study, that will be finished in 2015, fruit-bearing trees are subject to the same tests.
On the strength of current results all the participants are optimistic that the large-scale reafforestation can start, once the second phase of the feasibility study and the analysis of its results are accomplished, provided that the funding is secured.