Challenges
Many of Uganda’s natural ecosystems are undergoing conversion, degradation and decline in a totally unplanned and uncontrolled manner. Examples include – uncontrolled expansion of agricultural land; the erosion of soils and a decline in their fertility; falling quality and availability of water; unregulated encroachment and degradation of wetlands; encroachment of forest reserves; deforestation and the overgrazing of rangelands; and the invasion of weed species and bush encroachment.
-- Foundation for Sustainable Development, 2011
Yet a ruthlessly extractive approach to “economic development” is depleting our finite resources at an alarming rate and threatens Uganda’s future sustainability. Magnifying this loss are the growing impacts of global climate change in our nation.
NAPE is dedicated to overcoming these challenges and helping to create a healthy, prosperous, sustainable Uganda that benefits all. We take seriously the Millennium Development Goal 7, “Ensure Environmental Sustainability,” as an urgent national priority.
Categories covered here are click to advance:
Here in brief are the challenges we face:
Few countries will be as seriously affected by global climate change as Uganda. It will raise average temperatures in Uganda by 1.5C in the next 20 years, and higher by up to 4.3C by 2080, according to United Nations experts. This would result in increased rainfall over much of the country by 10 to 20 percent, but a decrease in semi-arid regions, such as the dry cattle corridor, the experts noted. Without decisive actions by Ugandans, climate change will cause a national catastrophe. To read more, click here.
Reducing Poverty by Sustainable Growth
Sustainable
economic growth requires creating new jobs and enterprises without
sacrificing our irreplaceable natural resources. It is a challenge
all societies face, but none faces it more urgently than Ugandans as
we struggle to rise from a low-income nation to lasting prosperity.
Unsustainably exhausting our natural resources is not the answer for
reducing poverty, or we would have erased poverty in Uganda long ago.
To read more, click here.
21st Century Energy for People
One of our
most tragic public policy failures is the inability to provide
Ugandans with affordable, accessible, reliable energy, without which
our nation will always be poor. Adding to that tragedy is the
mindless waste of what little energy we pay dearly for by careless
inefficiencies in transportation, construction techniques, farming
practices, buildings and homes. Uganda urgently needs a
comprehensive energy policy emphasizing alternative energy sources
and energy efficiency. To read more, click
here.
Nothing is
more fundamental to sustaining life than abundant, clean water for
human consumption, for cultivating food and cash crops, supporting
healthy forests and grasslands, ensuring abundant wildlife, and
making possible vibrant towns, cities and industries. Uganda’s
leadership has degraded this precious resource with destructive,
failed policies in the name of “economic development.” The need
is urgent for Uganda to protect our water from further degradation. To
read more, click here.
Uganda’s
fertile lands have long been the envy of Africa, yielding a rich
bounty and variety of foods from grains to livestock, as well as
abundant wildlife and other foods from our vast forests. Numerous
environmental threats now jeopardize our ability to feed ourselves,
especially those of us who depend on subsistence farming. Uganda’s
leadership must take seriously the responsibility to enforce
environmental and development laws to ensure food security. To read
more, click here.
Uganda has
lost nearly a third of forest cover since 1990 – and at that rate,
will have no forest left by 2050. The causes are many, but all share
a self-defeating focus on short-term economic gain at the expense of
long-term sustainability. Uganda urgently needs new policies and
enforcement to protect this natural process and reverse our loss of
forests. To read more, click here.
Few policies
are more foolish and destructive to a sustainable economic future
than the government’s inept investments in large hydroelectric dams
along Uganda’s priceless rivers. Instead, we could produce all
the electricity Uganda needs by creating a balanced portfolio of
smaller and alternative sources of energy that are more
cost-effective, robust and capable. The government’s myopic faith
in large dams as the only solution will make Uganda less self-reliant
and more vulnerable – and already has. To read more, click
here.
As foreign
oil giants begin to produce oil in our Lake Albert region, all signs
are that Uganda will become the latest nation to fall victim to the
“oil curse” – cheated of its financial benefits by a corrupt
government – and left with extensive environmental damage. It will
take a powerful public outcry to prevent this from happening. To
read more, click here.
Poisoning by Chemical Pollution
From leather
tannery effluents and medical waste to garden fertilizers and
household and personal products, Uganda faces a growing threat that
is poisoning our soil and water, as well as harming public health.
Solving this serious problem will take national leadership to adopt a
comprehensive program of sound chemical management consisting of new
regulations, raising public awareness and innovative technology. To
read more, click here.
Over a
quarter of Uganda’s land area (6.43 million hectares out of 24.1
million total) is a protected area – national parks, forests and
game preserves. The economic and cultural value of this rich store of
protected lands is incalculable. Yet these protected lands are also
under constant threat of encroachment and serious damage by illegal,
short-sighted economic development projects – with more to come. To
read more, click here.
Democracy, Corruption, Accountability
Many of our
most serious environmental problems originate from government
officials at all levels who make momentous decisions with serious
environmental consequences in secret, ignore legal requirements,
abuse the human rights of affected persons and communities, and even
commit corrupt acts. To read more, click
here.
Vast
knowledge, talents and energies reside in Ugandan women, who could
add immeasurably to our efforts to create a society both
environmentally and economically sustainable. This may never happen
if we continue to hamper their full participation in community and
public affairs because of entrenched gender roles that treat women as
inferior, and thus without a voice in their communities. To read
further, click here.
Many
communities throughout Uganda, especially those in rural areas, are
increasingly vulnerable to exploitation and abuse by corporate and
government officials eager to exploit natural resources in misguided
“economic development” projects.
As a result, communities and poor families have been forcibly removed
from their traditional lands with no proper resettlement and
compensation – in some instances rendered landless, hunger stricken
and destitute. To read more, click
here.
