Govt to plant 100 million trees by 2021
Oct 30, 2020
ENVIRONMENT |
The government has expressed commitment to have 100 million trees planted before the end of the year 2021.
This was revealed on Tuesday by John Lodungokoli, the assistant commissioner for crop production in the Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF). He was launching the tree-planting campaign spearheaded by the Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) Association.
According to Lodungokoli, the government is not only designing a policy geared towards this campaign, but also engaging all Civil society organisations, among other partners to undertake tree-planting and regeneration initiatives.
This was confirmed by Bob Kazungu, the senior forestry officer in charge of monitoring under the ministry of water and environment.
Kazungu, who had represented the commissioner for forestry, intimated that the campaign was planned to start early this year, but was postponed to April 2021 after the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic.
"One of the main concerns that we have, is the survival of the millions of trees that we intend to give out there for planting. But we have so far recorded an average survival of 72% in previous cases of those trees given out.
However, we have not yet operationalised the tree fund. Therefore, much of the money is expected to come from partners and private companies but as the ministry, we budgeted about sh35b to be used for this campaign," Kazungu explained.
As part of the initiative, PELUM-Uganda which is part of a 12-country strong association of civil society organisations in Eastern, central, and Southern Africa; has so far planted over 20,000 trees plus 500 seedlings of assorted indigenous fruit trees that were planted at the Plant Genetic resources centre (Entebbe botanical gardens) during the launch of the campaign on Tuesday.
Stella Lutalo, the country coordinator for PELUM-Uganda noted that as part of the celebrations to commemorate 25years, the association intends to rally its members, affiliate small-holder farmers, like-minded stakeholders and partners all over the country to undertake tree-planting and regeneration initiatives for 2.5 million indigenous agroforestry and fruit trees before October 2021. "This will not only increase tree cover but also farm productivity and resilience to climate change effects," said Lutalo.
In recognition of the high rate of deforestation that has been experienced for decades, statistics indicate that forest cover declined from 24% in 1990 down to 9% in 2016.
Lutalo appealed that, although the ministry of water and environment reported an increase in the forest cover to over 12% in 2019, a lot more collaborative effort is desired to combat deforestation especially on private farmlands which are habitats to a variety of indigenous trees.
Statistics from the National Forestry Authority (NFA), indicate that 65% of the forest degradation takes place on private land. This loss of forest cover is reported to impact on human lives in many ways and also hurts the economy.
According to the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), the contribution of forestry resources to national economy is conservatively estimated at 8.7% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Forestry is directly credited for supporting Uganda's tourism sector by supporting wildlife and other biodiversity. Trees and forests also help enhance the functions and resilience of Agro-ecological systems and provide critical Eco-system services such as carbon storage, nutrient cycling, water and air purification, and maintenance of wildlife habitats.
Under a theme, 'trees for healthy agroecosystems,' the campaign is expected to contribute to the attainment of multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). "If a household can plant between 1-5 trees, we can easily meet this target," implored Lutalo.
Septic tank in botanical gardens
Meanwhile, Dr. John Mulumba, the curator for Entebbe botanical gardens clarified about the septic tank and soak pit in the botanical gardens saying, there is a huge infrastructural development in Entebbe where the national grid for the sewerage system has not been extended, causing a challenge of sewerage management.
"So, as a short-term measure, the owners of this infrastructure requested for a small piece of land to put a soak pit, which we offered, as the sewage was likely to spill over to the gardens," Dr. Mulumba explained. He lauded the media for its continued efforts aimed at conserving the environment.