Dr. Kitutu Kimono Mary Goretti, the Minister of State for Water and Environment (Environment) has insisted that as Uganda works towards achieving its Vision 2040 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), conservation of Biodiversity remains key for inclusive development.
“Uganda losses 90,000 hectares of forest cover every year,” said Dr. Kitutu adding, “We have talked enough. It is now time to act because biodiversity loss will undermine achievement of middle income status and the country’s Vision 2040.”
The forest cover loss is more four times bigger than the trees Ugandans plant every twelve months. Between 1990 and 2005, the country lost 26 per cent of its forest cover (or about 1,297,000 hectares).
Dr. Kitutu was on Tuesday morning speaking at a High-Level Dialogue on Biodiversity Financing (BIOFIN) at the Serena Hotel, Kampala organized by the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.
The dialogue has the theme, “Catalyzing increased financing for Biodiversity conservation in Uganda”, according to Monique Akullo, of the National Environment Management Authority.
It also has a presentation on entry points for the Private Sector in Environment and Biodiversity financing and a panel discussion by chief conservators, political leaders and representatives of the private sector on financing biodiversity conservation in Uganda.
United Nations Development Programme, Uganda spokesperson Doreen Kansiime says the goal of the BIOFIN project is to assist countries transform national biodiversity financing and thereby enable them implement the National Biodiversity Strategic Action Plan and achieve the Aichi Convention targets.
Nema is one of the institutions mandated to protect the environment but the National Forestry Authority (NFA) is directly in charge of protecting the 506 central forest reserves from encroachment.
Large tracts of government forest reserves have been cleared over the recent years and President Museveni has on a number of occasions publicly expressed displeasure at the performance of NFA.
