Gov’t Issues New Directives to Reinforce Environmental Conservation

Government through the Ministry of Water and Environment has announced new directives aimed at supplementing existing strategies to boost protection of the environment and natural resources.

According to Beatrice Atim Anywar, the State Minister for the Environment, there has been a marked decline in Uganda’s environment and natural resources over the last 29 years.

Since 1990, she said, wetlands declined from 15.6% to 8.4% in 2017 at a rate of 2-2.5 % (75,100 Ha) annually while forest cover reduced from 24% to 9% in 2015 at a rate of 1.4% (200,000—220,000 Ha) annually making Uganda among the most rapidly deforesting nations in the world although by 2019 there has been steady increment to 12.4%.

“The Grey Crowned Crane (Balearica regulorum), Uganda’s national symbol and heritage has declined from 100,000 in 1996 to 10,000 in 2016. The habitat of this bird is the wetlands which are being degraded,” Anywar said.

“The amount of water available annually in the country has declined from 66 billion km3 in 2005 to 43 billion km3 by 2012 and is expected to worsen by 2040 with serious impacts on the water needs of the various sectors of the economy,” she added.

It should be noted that Uganda’s water resources are 98% trans-boundary and are shared with other 10 countries in the Nile Basin.

“The rapid decline in the Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) has been attributed to a number of drivers including but not limited to industrialization, unplanned urbanization, deforestation and agriculture. The high population growth rate of 3.2% annually and poverty levels also contribute to the ENR decline,” she said.

The Minister noted that unless the ENR is sustainably managed, the targets for social and economic transformation as enshrined in Vision 2040, the National Development Plan Ill, the Water and Environment Sector Development Plan, the Green Growth Strategy and the Sustainable Development Goals will not be realized.

“ENRs are prerequisites for social and economic development where the ENR sector contributes 28% towards GDP. The sector is the largest source of employment with 72% of the labor force engaged in ENR supported sectors including agriculture and tourism,” she highlighted.

In addition to providing the tangible benefits such as timber, wood fuel, maintenance of hydropower, medicines, water cycle, wildlife and modification of climate, Anywar emphasized, ENR, especially forests and wetlands, sequestrate and store large volume of carbon dioxide which is the major contribution to global warming.

Against that background, the Cabinet directed as follows:

All encroachers in the government forest reserves, lakeshores and riverbanks should be evicted and the affected ecosystems restored. Encroachers are hereby given time to harvest their crops and voluntarily vacate. Those who fail to comply will be evicted;
Encroachers in rural wetlands will be mobilized and re-organized to engage into alternative sustainable wetlands utilization models. Growing of rice and other crops in wetlands is hereby banned;
Encroachers who illegally grabbed urban wetlands should voluntarily vacate the wetlands or be evicted;
All titles illegally issued in wetlands and forest reserves must be cancelled by Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development and the people who issued them prosecuted;
Boundaries of forest reserves, lakeshores, riverbanks and wetlands will be demarcated, marked with pillars, live markers and titled years;
The Ministries of Agriculture, Animal Industries and Fisheries and Water and Environment will enforce sustainable agriculture on hilly and mountainous areas by use of contour farming, terracing and other soil erosion control measures;
The production, importation and use of polythene carrier bags in the country is banned;
All urban centres should adopt the greening model and establish green parks and green belts;
Importation of treated utility poles is banned;
All industries are directed to comply with the standards and regulations for the discharge of effluents, air emissions and waste management;
Construction of industries in wetlands is hereby banned until further notice;
Bush burning across the country must stop;
Cabinet has declared a decade of environmental restoration and all Ugandans are called upon to participate in this noble cause.
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