Acholi Cultural Institution has
partnered with the Uganda National Oil
Company (UNOC), the National
Forestry Authority (NFA), Operation Wealth Creation (OWC), and Kijani Forestry to plant between 6 to 10 million trees across the Acholi
sub-region over the next five years.
Discussed at the palace of the
Acholi Paramount Chief in Gulu City on June 17th, the tree-planting
initiative aims to integrate traditional values of environmental stewardship
with modern climate action strategies.
The project will see UNOC and OWC providing funding and technical
support, while NFA availing seedlings
and degraded forest reserves for reforestation, and Kijani Forestry offering expertise in
regenerative agroforestry and tree nursery management.
The Acholi Cultural Institution,
through its chiefs and elders, will mobilise communities, especially youth and
women, to take active roles in planting and maintaining the trees.
George Okello Okuna, the Minister of
Information at Acholi Cultural Institution, told Uganda Radio Network that the
project to be launched next month will also see the Acholi Cultural Institution
planting several acres of trees to serve as an example to the subjects to
emulate.
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The institution has requested NFA to
give them one of the deforested central forest reserves for them to plant the
trees.
Okuna explained that depending on
the size of the land they will be given, they will even plant up to 50 acres. The
cultural institution intends to use the trees as a future source of income, to
prevent reliance on support from well-wishers.
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The Acholi sub-region has faced
accelerating environmental degradation due to charcoal burning, shifting cultivation, illegal logging, and climate-induced droughts. Forest cover
has declined sharply over the last two decades, affecting rainfall patterns,
food production, and biodiversity.
Michael Tebere, the Director of
Partnerships and Government at Kijani Forestry, explained that the partnership
will prioritize indigenous tree species,
as they are more resilient, culturally significant.
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Tebere revealed that the project
will also involve giving shade trees to support farmers who are engaged in coffee
growing.
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He appealed to all those who will directly
benefit from the project to ensure that they do not only plant the trees, but
also nurture them to full term.
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Several districts and organizations
in Uganda have in the past years embarked on tree-plating projects to replace
the forest covers that have been destroyed over the years, for charcoal,
firewood and wood other products.
The forest cover in Uganda has
declined from 23.8% in 1990 to about 9.9% in 2027, according to the National
State of Environment report of 2028-2019.
The drastic decline in the forest cover
is because 73% of Ugandans use firewood for cooking and 21% use charcoal, according
to the Uganda National Household Survey Report of 2019/2020.
