Parliamentarians to plant one million trees

Parliament of Uganda will plant over one million trees.

While opening the Parliamentary sitting on Thursday evening Speaker Rebecca Kadaga asked every Member of Parliament (MP) present to get involved in this activity.

“During the last Parliament Week, we made a commitment to plant over one million trees. Therefore, we are going to plant these trees on 20 acres of land in Namanve. It’s my appeal to members to contribute towards this cause,” said Kadaga.

Kadaga urged members to embrace their obligations towards this activity.

In response to her call, Deputy Speaker Jacob Oulanyah contributed Shs1 million towards this project which they called “Greening Uganda Project”.

 “Last year, Parliament planted trees in Mt Moroto Forest Reserve as part of the Green Uganda project. Therefore all the collections we shall get during this Parliament Week, will be used to plant trees in Namanve,” said Oulanyah.

Kadaga said that planting trees is the only way to reclaim back the good climate Uganda had.

“Climate is changing as the population increases we lose more forests to people for settlement, and cultivation or occupation. As Parliament this is our duty to show what must be done,” added Kadaga.

The Greening Uganda campaign was launched last year in January, during the 18^th edition of the Parliamentary Week. Then, Parliament urged the general public to contribute Shs20, 000 to buy trees. Through this campaign, 5,000 trees were bought and planted in Moroto District on 10 hectares of land.

Uganda’s forest cover has been depleted from 24 per cent in 1990’s to 8 per cent in 2018.

According to State Minister for Environment, Mary Goretti Kitutu, this rapid dilapidation of forest cover is attributed to the increased human activities towards forests such cutting trees for timber or charcoal and agricultural practices.
Kitutu said.

“The rate at which forests in Uganda are cleared by man is high and if nothing is done by both government and citizens, Uganda will soon face disasters like floods and droughts if citizens do not pay attention to environmental management.”