Chinese launch fund to protect Lake Victoria
Left to right: Mr Chu Maoming, the Charge de Affairs Chinese Embassy, Cody Zhou, the CEO Save the Wild Fund, Paddy Kakumba secretary general LVRLACC, Midius Mbabazi Asiimwe deputy mayor Jinja and Vincent De Paul Kayanja hold a dummy sign board for the 10,000 initial seedlings in Kampala last week. PHOTO BY STEPHEN OTAGE
What you need to know:
Initiative. The fund is supposed to contribute towards tree planting around the lake.
KAMPALA. Save the Wild Fund, a Chinese not-for-profit environmental conservation organisation, has started operations to encourage companies to fund conservation of Lake Victoria.
Speaking at the launch last week, Mr Tiang Clody Zhoo, the chairman Save the Wild Fund, said the organisation which was launched last week in Uganda, is partnering with Lake Victoria region local authorities and counties cooperation (LVRLAC) to lobby all Chinese companies operating in the country to contribute towards an environmental fund to plant trees around the lake.
“We are encouraging all Chinese companies operating in Uganda to contribute towards the fund because for them to continue making profits from here, they need to maintain the environment today so that these resources are not depleted,” he said.
Strategy
Mr Zhoo said their strategy involves providing fruit and wood tree seedlings to local authorities around Lake Victoria region to plant them around wetlands to demarcate the wetlands while the fruits will provide income for communities neighbouring the wetlands.
While presiding over the event, Mr Vincent De Paul Kayanja, the chairman LVRLAC, said their association is a regional body bringing together local authorities in all the countries surrounding lake victoria with a mandate to ensure that lake victoria is not polluted and this is backed by the 2013 Entebbe Declaration where they committed themselves to plant three million across East Africa.
“Since 1997, we have raised membership of 130 local authorities in Kenya, Tanzania and soon we expect to be joined by Rwanda and Burundi since we all share Lake Victoria” Mr Kayanja said on Friday as they received a first batch of 10,000 tree seedlings.
