Uganda: Trees giving shea butter beauty cream face threat

A former biology teacher has taken up a passionate fight to protect Uganda’s endangered shea trees, known for producing the valuable “women’s gold”—shea butter. Mustafa Gerima left his teaching career behind six years ago when he returned to find the once-thriving Mount Kei Central Forest Reserve decimated, with wild shea trees reduced to scattered stumps.

Now known as “Bwana Shea” (Mr Shea), Gerima travels from village to village in northwestern Uganda, urging communities to stop cutting down the trees for charcoal, which locals consider more profitable than the oil extracted from the shea fruit, used in both cosmetics and cooking.

According to Gerima, interest in preserving the trees has waned as farmers suffer failed crops and prolonged droughts caused by climate change, disrupting the shea nut’s natural flowering cycle. Charcoal made from shea wood is especially prized for its longer burn time, increasing deforestation pressures in poverty-stricken regions.

Uganda reportedly loses about 100,000 hectares of forest annually, including significant numbers of shea trees, which grow naturally across Africa’s “shea belt.” This depletion has severely affected locals like Mariam Chandiru, a long-time shea butter producer in Koboko, who says her income has dwindled as she now fills only two jerry cans of oil a week, compared to five in the past.

Traditionally, it is women who collect nuts to produce Nilotica butter, renowned for its culinary and cosmetic properties. But other challenges have compounded the problem. Professor John Bosco Okullo of Makerere University notes that during the 1990s, communities safeguarded shea trees. However, conflicts—including the violent insurgency led by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA)—forced people into displacement camps, eroding their connection to the land and pushing them toward short-term income sources like charcoal production.

Climate change, civil unrest, and rapid urban development have further strained the species. The expansion of infrastructure, including new districts, schools, and hospitals, has led to the widespread clearing of shea-rich areas. Prof Okullo stresses the need for proactive replanting, warning that relying on natural regrowth is no longer sufficient.

Despite the challenges, efforts to conserve shea trees are gaining ground. In 2020, Gerima walked 644 kilometers from Kampala to the UN Environment Programme headquarters in Nairobi to raise awareness. NGOs are now supporting communities in replanting efforts and experimenting with grafting to accelerate tree maturity.

To aid sustainability, scientists are also turning to artificial intelligence to map mature trees and estimate yields. Recognizing the crisis, the Ugandan government outlawed tree felling for charcoal in 2023, but enforcement remains weak, especially as urban charcoal demand continues to drive deforestation.

Gerima remains undeterred. He continues to meet with local leaders, lead planting campaigns, and plans to launch grassroots tree-monitoring initiatives. He also wants conservation education to be included in school curriculums.

For him, the fight is about more than saving a species—it’s about safeguarding cultural heritage and future generations. “If they come and only find stumps,” he says, “what will they think of us?”