Restoring Biodiversity: Uganda’s untapped economic and ecological opportunity

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OPINION

By Phiona Nantume

In recent years, global attention has turned towards one urgent reality: humanity’s future depends on restoring the natural systems that sustain life.

For Uganda, the conversation on biodiversity must move beyond preservation to restoration. It is not enough to protect what is left; we must rather actively rebuild what we have lost. Restoration of biodiversity is both an ecological necessity and a powerful economic opportunity.

Uganda’s landscapes from the Albertine Rift to Lake Kyoga and Mount Elgon host some of the richest biological diversity in Africa. Yet this natural wealth is under siege. According to the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), Uganda has lost its wetlands and forest cover over the last three decades, largely due to agricultural expansion, deforestation, and unplanned urbanisation.

These ecosystems are not just habitats; they are natural infrastructure providing water regulation, soil fertility, pollination, and carbon storage services worth billions of shillings annually.

The World Bank’s 2022 Country Environmental Analysis estimated that environmental degradation costs Uganda more than 5% of its GDP each year.

That loss dwarfs the annual earnings from several export sectors combined. It also undercuts key industries like tourism and agriculture, which depend directly on healthy ecosystems.

Tourism alone driven largely by Uganda’s biodiversity, earned $1.3 billion in 2019, accounting for over 7% of GDP and employing hundreds of thousands of Ugandans. However, this trend had recently declined. If biodiversity continues to decline, these revenues and the livelihoods behind them will be at risk.

Yet within this crisis lies immense potential. The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030) calls for global efforts to revive one billion hectares of degraded land. Uganda can be a model of African leadership in this mission.

The country’s new National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan III (2025–2030) align with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, committing to restoring degraded ecosystems, particularly wetlands and forests, by 2030.

Restoration is not merely about planting trees; it is about rebuilding ecosystems so they function again, supporting both people and nature.

Successful restoration also makes economic sense. Every shilling invested in ecosystem restoration can yield returns between seven to 30 times through improved water supply, climate resilience, and productivity, according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

For rural Uganda, where 80% of people rely on land and natural resources, restoration means jobs from tree nurseries and wetland rehabilitation to sustainable agriculture and ecotourism enterprises.

But policy alone is not enough. The restoration agenda must tackle three key challenges: Financing, Coordination, and Community incentives. Currently, Uganda spends less than on biodiversity-related programs, far below what’s needed.

Mobilising green finance through mechanisms such as biodiversity credits, ecosystem payment schemes, and private-sector partnerships could unlock transformative funding.

Uganda’s private sector also has a role to play. Financial institutions can integrate biodiversity risk into lending, while industries that depend on natural resources, such as agriculture, energy, and tourism, can adopt nature-positive business models.

Building on existing synergies, a National Restoration Fund could blend public and private capital to finance local restoration projects with measurable impacts. Community-based organisations and cooperatives should be empowered as key implementers, linking restoration to livelihoods through ecotourism, carbon markets, and sustainable farming.

Restoring biodiversity is not charity for nature; it is an investment in Uganda’s economic stability, food security, and climate resilience. Restoration must be data-driven with transparent monitoring systems that track gains in forest, wetland, and species recovery.

Nature, once degraded it can heal if given the chance. The task before us is not just to conserve what remains, but to restore what we have lost and, in doing so, secure a greener, more prosperous Uganda for generations to come.

The writer is a student of Masters of Business Administration at Makerere University Business School.