Bushenyi Children Walk For Environment

Jun 30, 2003

0VER 5,000 School children participated in a charity walk covering a distance of 12 km, <br>from Ruyonza Teacher Training College to Bishop Ogez High School, to raise money for tree planting in Bushenyi District.

By Andrew Hutchinson
0VER 5,000 School children participated in a charity walk covering a distance of 12 km,
from Ruyonza Teacher Training College to Bishop Ogez High School, to raise money for tree planting in Bushenyi District.
At the ceremony, Nyine Bitahwa, the project director of Rukararwe Partnership Workshop for Rural Development (Rukararwe PWRD), said tree planting has not been accorded the important attention it deserves for several decades.
“As a result, our vegetation has been severely affected and may be destroyed and changed forever, if we do not act now,” warned Bitahwa.
Tree planting in Bushenyi was started two decades ago by Rukararwe RPWRD, which inaugurated a tree planting movement at the beginning of this year. The project aims at not only working within Bushenyi, but plans to operate throughout the whole country as well, in the near future.
Dr. Aryamanya Mugisha, the executive director of the National Environment Management Authority was the chief walker accompanied by the commissioner of forestry
Mugisha pledged to help establish two seed nurseries at Ruyonza T.T.C and at Bishop Ogez High School. While Bitahwa said he would supply seeds to all the schools that had participated in the charity walk, so that they could plant trees to improve the environment and the poor climatic conditions.
The British American Tobacco company and the National Water and Sewerage Corporation both pledged to support seed beds for 100 schools in the district.
Apart from the Rukararwe PWRD, Bushenyi District, and a number of non governmental organisations also participated in mobilising the district’s population for the day’s activities.
Tree species which were displayed by the different partners included legumes, timber trees, medicinal trees, fruit trees, and a wide variety of many others.
About 80 years ago, most of Bushenyi was covered by a tropical rain forest, but due to uncontrolled deforestation, overgrazing, bush burning and unsustainable methods of land use and general environmental degradation, there is only a small portion of the original rain forest remaining around Kalinzu region.
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