Minister of Works and Transport Minister, Gen. Edward Katumba Wamala has launched a three-day planting campaign project at Busoga College Mwiri.

Katumba launched and rolled out the tree-planting exercise after attending the homecoming event of the old boys of Busoga College Mwiri at the school in Jinja district on Saturday.

Absa Bank Uganda teamed up with the Mwiri Old Boys Association (MOBA) to restore the school’s tree cover which has diminished over the years due to human activity.

The school is situated on a hill occupying 560 acres including the school premises on 60 acres and 500 acres of forest land.

Unfortunately, the 500 acres that cover the slopes of the hill on which the school sits were once a forest but have over the years been degraded due to encroachment and other commercial activities and the extensive presence of termites.

Minister of Works and Transport Gen. Edward Katumba Wamala (R) and Helen Basuuta-Nangonzi (middle in red t-shirt) the Marketing and Customer Experience Director at Absa Bank Uganda planting a tree at Busoga College Mwiri during the launch of the tree-planting campaign on Saturday. Photos by Donald Kiirya

Additionally, the replacement of trees that have been harvested for various reasons has not been done effectively, leaving the hill slopes bare and prone to erosion.

“For this reason, the old boys of the school have embarked on this initiative to reforest the hill to its original green status,” Michael Bageya, the co-ordinator of the reforestation project from the Mwiri Old Boys Association (MOBA), said.

Speaking at the event, Helen Basuuta-Nangonzi the marketing and customer experience director at Absa Bank Uganda, said the partnership is part of the bank’s actions to support long-term environmental sustainability.

“We are helping to mitigate climate change risk through a focused environmental sustainability programme ensuring that future generations have the natural resources available to live an equal, if not better, way of life as current generations,” she said.

She revealed that Absa Bank will contribute to the success of the project by providing over 30,000 indigenous and fruit trees, as well as the support of its staff who have volunteered their time to be part of the various tree planting exercises.

Katumba hailed the partnership initiated by Absa Bank and MOBA in partnership with the works ministry.

“The campaign aims at teaching the students the importance of planting trees to protect the environment and also task their parents back at home to at least plant a tree in their compounds,” he said.     

According to data from the Ministry of Water and Environment, deforestation remains the major challenge of forestry management which led to a decline of forest cover from 24% in 1990 to 12.4% in 2015. Uganda has an average annual loss of natural forest of 2% per annum, one of the highest in the world.

Under the project, MOBA is working together with the local community on conservation for long-term sustainability.

The project will be carried out in phases, in intervals of 100 acres planted for each of the first three rain seasons then the last phase of 200 acres planted at once.