Earth day Celebrations For Forests,For People

Tree Nursery established at Sebei College Tegeres in Kapchorwa under the Schools Initiative to conserve Mount Elgon Ecosystem Project. The nursery has a number of tree species including Podocarpus species, Grevillea robusta, Cordia Africana, Syzygium austral, etc. The tree nursery as a learning centre for the students on a number of issues concerning environmental conservation but also a training centre for the community farmers who also benefit from the seedlings raised.

Wildlife Trafficking

Cheers to the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) for stopping an attempt to smuggle these 152 tortoises out of the country.

Wildlife smuggling does not just harm animals. This unlawful trafficking also hurts a country’s economy and tourism, because if there are fewer animals, there will be fewer tourists spending money on guides, hotels, and travel.

How can you help boost efforts to reduce wildlife trafficking?

(Photo Credit: Uganda Revenue Authority)

 

 

 

Fuelling conflict or development? Cross-border oil and gas resources in the African Great Lakes Region.

Within its programme on ‟Intercultural dialogue for peace and development in the African Great Lakes Region,”Pole Institute from the Democratic Republic of Congo in collaboration with European Commission organized a restitution of the study: `Fuelling conflict or development?

This conference was held on 2nd February 2015 at Grand Imperial Hotel, Kampala to discuss issues around the general overview of oil and gas resources in the Albertine Graben and their dynamics in Uganda, DRC and Rwanda.

Population, Health and Environment nexus critical for Lake Victoria Basin.

Since 2011, the HoPE-LVB Project started implementing a model aimed at reducingthreats to biodiversity conservation and ecosystem degradation in the Lake Victoria Basin while simultaneously increasing access to family planning and reproductive health services, and improving maternal and child health.

In Uganda the project is implemented by Pathfinder International and Ecological Christian Organization (ECO).

On the 18th and 19th of February 2015, at Protea Hotel, Kampala, the two institutions brought together Ugandan community leaders and members, national and non-governmental organizations for a dissemination and strategic planning meeting to scale up the project.

In addition to the above, the meeting was also intended to:

  • Demonstrate the benefits of applying a cross-sectoral, integrated approach to sustainable development
  • Share learning, results and challenges from implementing the pilot phase of the HoPE-LVB project which was focused on developing a scalable model of integrated population, health and environment (PHE) interventions
  • Expose participants to systematic approaches to scaling up interventions
  • Gather recommendations for scaling up HoPE-LVB’s successfully tested interventions by going through a process of developing a scaling up strategy
  • Gauge interest and potential commitment of new partners to support expanded implementation of HoPE-LVB’s sustainable development approach

For more about this project, what it does and how it aims to achieve its objectives, follow

http://www.pathfinder.org

The Mineral Policy, Law and Taxation Reviewed

On the 5thand 6th of March 2015 at Protea Hotel, Kampala, different stakeholders from government ministries, district officials, community members from different districts and representatives from Civil Society Organizations assembled altogether to review the CSO Position Paper on the Mineral Policy, Law and Taxation that was presented to the Inter-Ministerial Committee and Parliamentarians.

The position paper handed over to the Inter-Ministerial Committee demonstrates Uganda civil society’s collective commitment to ensure that the present challenges confronting the mining sector are identified and recommends proposals that the committee should consider in current policy formulation.

The ministerial committee has been tasked to make an explicit reference to the CSO Position Paper and proposals in the Government Green Paper on Minerals and Mining before coming up with the final drafts.

An Institutional National Task Force for Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) in Uganda formed.

On the 12thof March 2015, a number of stakeholders including district officials, representatives from government ministries, Non-Government Organizations and the Private-Public Partnerships convened at Colline Hotel in Mukono District to discuss the outcomes of some of the recommendations from previous work done as well as participate in the formation of an institutional task force for Forestry Law Enforcement Governance and Trade.

The national task force to be formed shall provide technical and advisory guidance to national and regional initiatives on Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT), the public procurement systems for forest products, the local and central government performance monitoring and the taxation for forest products

Ephraim Kamuntu

Ephraim KamuntuMinister for water and environment-Ephraim Kamuntu

Ephraim Kamuntu is a Ugandan management scientist and politician. He is the current Minister for Water and Environment in the Ugandan cabinet. He was appointed to that position on 15August 2012.

Hon. Ephraim Kamuntu served as Uganda’s Minister of Tourism, Wildlife and Heritage until he was appointed Minister of Water and Environment in August 2012.

He is also an Ex-Officio of the Ugandan cabinet, on account of his Cabinet position.