RECOVERY: Government Partners With PELUM Uganda To Plant 100m Trees In 24 Months

BY PATRICK JARAMOGI

ENTEBBE, Uganda |SHIFTMEDIA| Uganda has lost millions of carbon energy in the past years due to deforestation, but not all hope is gone as government and private players plan to plant 100 million trees in next two years.

Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) Association, that brings together over 60 firms is spearheading this initiative from the private sector with an initial plan of planting at least 2.5 million indigenous trees to coincide with its Silver Jubilee celebrations.

PELUM Uganda is part of a 12-country strong association of civil society organizations in Eastern, Central and Southern Africa. These include Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Swaziland, Lesotho, Botswana and South Africa known as the PELUM Association.

PELUM Uganda will plant 2.5 million trees in the next 12 months, as part of efforts to restore the depleted forest cover.

During the past two decades, PELUM has grown to be one of the most reputable NGO networks in Uganda and Africa.

“As part of the celebration to commemorate the 25 years, PELUM Uganda intends to rally its members, affiliate smallholder farmers, like-minded stakeholders and partners all over the country to undertake tree planting and regeneration initiatives for 2.5 million trees (indigenous, agroforestry and fruit trees) between October 2020 and October 2021. The theme for this campaign is ‘trees for healthy agroecosystems’, said Stella Lutalo the PELUM chief.

Addressing media at the launch held at the Entebbe Botanical Gardens on October 27, Stella Lutalo the PELUM Coordinator said they would mobilise other stakeholders and partners to take part in the countrywide tree planting initiative.

According to the National Forestry Authority (NFA), Uganda’s forest cover drastically dropped from 24pc of land surface to 9pc between 1990 and 2016.

Bob Kazungu, the Assistant Commissioner for Forestry supervision at the Ministry of Water and Environment said government plans to plant 100 million trees by the end of 2021. “We have budgeted over Ugx35 billion for this exercise. We shall plat 40 million trees in eight hours in one day as part of our campaign to hit the 100 million mark,” said Kazungu.

Dr. John Wasswa Mulumba, the Curator of Entebbe Gardens urged Ugandans to value indigenous trees. “Indigenous trees take longer to mature but its value in sustaining lives, especially of nature is great,” he said.

As part of 25 years anniversary celebrations, PELUM will also hold 2^nd Annual Agroecology Actors symposium on 29^th October and 10^th Annual indigenous food fair on 30^th October.