The state minister for water and environment Hon.Beatrice Anwar has come out to condemn human actions against the environment.
Anwar cited the a group of people with money as the main menes behind the destruction of forests in the Country.
“It is the rich who are destroying our forests with the aim of establishing buildings among other things to serve their selfish interests.”
Anwar said there’s need for government international in the matter of environment pollution and stringent laws be made to punish the culprits.
“Government needs to come up with strong laws in the constitution which barr environment polluters from their actions.These culprits need to brought to book and if arrested,charged in the courts of law and jailed for violation the environment laws.”
The minister further called upon collective efforts from the public to stop bad habits of destroying the environment but rather protect it.
“We Ugandans should all be accountable for our environment and stop relying on development partners to sensize us on environmental degradation among others.”
The campaign approach also involves adopting restoration strategies to fit local social, economic and ecological contexts and a wide range of eligible technical strategies for restoring a mosaic canopy of trees on the national landscape. In addition, we aim at fast tracking national restoration goals and commitments that include but not limited to;
The pledge to restore 2.5million hectares of degraded landscapes by 2030 under the Bonn Challenge.
Vision 2040 aimed at restoring forest cover of total land area to 24%
Uganda’s Green Growth Strategy.
Uganda’s Nationally Determined Contributions to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan.
As part of the launch activities this year, the organizers have included a mechanic for the public to participate through a mobile phone app called ROOTs. Using this app, participants will “run” by downloading the app and purchasing a tree seedling at Ush 1,500 each using MTN/Airtel/Africel Mobile Money, Visa or Mastercard. What this means is that the Tree Planting this year will mainly be a virtual exercise where the 40 Million will be achieved through Virtual donations on the day but the actual physical planting of trees will happen over a period of 3 months.
Hon.Rebbeca Kadaga, Speaker of Parliament of Uganda while launching the during the ‘Running out of trees virtual run stressed that it’s leaders in most cases responsible for the destruction of he environment.
“I have come to understand that it’s these very leaders who are cutting our trees and draining wetlands among others in the name of developing those areas.”
Kadaga rallied all individuals to take charge of their actions so as to protect the environment.
While speaking at the event,Alvin Mbugua, Managing Director Uganda Breweries Limited preached the gospel of corporate entities coming together to front environment protection at all odds.
“Corporate entities should step out their comfort zone and front actions that don’t destroy our environment.It is usually us who pollute the environment while we run our different manufacturing industries among others. Let’s make a pledge to protect the environment.”
Alvin also revealed that UBL,the main partner in the Running out of trees campaign is passionate about a cleaner and safe environment for all.
“We have committed Shs330m towards this campaign and we intend to grow over 200m trees in the next five years of the campaign.”
The ROOT Campaign was launched in February 2020 as a 5-year project geared towards soliciting commitments from the private sector to support Government’s initiative to restore forest cover. Last year, the campaign managed to attract the support of various corporate companies who came together and supported financially and also by physically taking part in a relay run that started in Kampala and ended in Gulu. This year, the corporate companies joining Uganda Breweries Limited include, Stanbic Bank Uganda and the MTN Foundation.
Between March 21st and the end of May, a team from Tree Adoption Uganda which has been designated by the Ministry will support the planting and mapping the seedlings in the designated bulk planting areas.
The Running out of Trees initiative is an annual initiative that will be held over a 5-year period to end in 2025 with the planting of over 200 million Trees and sequester an estimated 15million tons of carbon.
