UGANDA | CELEBRATES | FOREST DAY

Uganda’s institutional body mandated to oversee the existence of the forest cover, the National Forest Authority (NFA), has joined the rest of the planet to celebrate the International Day of Forests under the theme: “Forests and Health.”

In remembrance of the day, NFA executive director Tom Okello, through an official statement, on Tuesday, revealed how Uganda’s forests present a rich biodiversity with great inherent value to human wealth.

“As we celebrate this important day, we are reminded that Uganda’s forests are important and treasured national assets that contribute 8.7% to the national economy." The forests play a significant role in the water cycle that sustains lives. Forests are an indispensable enabler for agriculture, which is the backbone of Uganda’s economy, and about 80% of the people in Uganda depend on biomass energy for their daily cooking needs,” Okello wrote in a message meant to mark this day.

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According to Okello, Uganda’s forest cover has increased from 9% in 2015 to 13% in 2021 and is expected to increase to 15% by 2025.

In a 2016 water and environment ministry report titled: State of Uganda’s Forestry 2016, Samuel Cheptoris, the Minister of water and environment, revealed in his foreword how efforts to save Uganda’s forest cover have been worsening instead of improving even when community tree initiatives, gazetting tree planting days, and licensing private tree growers in government forest reserves were undertaken.

“Uganda’s forests are faced with continuously worsening trends through encroachment, deforestation, and forest degradation through the conversion of forest land to other land uses. These include agriculture, urbanization, rampant felling of trees for timber, firewood, and charcoal burning on private and government land, rampant fires, and livestock damage on forest plantations. Overall, the country has been losing on average of 122,000 hectares (ha) of forest every year from 1990 to 2015. The greatest loss in the country is estimated at 250,000 ha of forests annually, according to NFA estimates for the period 2005–2010. On the other hand, on average, only about 7,000 hectares of planted forests have been established every year in the last 15 years. This imbalance can partly be attributed to weak institutions, uncoordinated implementation of policies between different sectors of the economy, insufficient funding, and limited capacity at all levels which has undermined effectiveness and efficiency in developing and sustainably managing forestry resources in Uganda,” Cheptoris said in the 2016 report.

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As Uganda forges a way forward on how to preserve its forest cover on this International Day of Forests, which provides traditional medicines, purifying water, habitat, and shelter to species critical for the survival of tourism, providing clean air, providing food, and a source of livelihoods to the forest adjacent communities in a green and modern economy, experts have called for the conservation of the forest cover and the promotion of forests for our health and the next generation.

Some of the endangered forests in Uganda include Mabira, Budongo, Mpanga, Maramagambo, Bwindi Impenetrable, Bugoma, and Kibale.