Pastoralists in tree planting drive

The two pastoralist communities of Uganda and Kenya have launched a joint campaign to restore the lost forest cover and conserve the environment in Karamoja Sub-region.
The semi-nomadic pastoralist regions are increasingly becoming prone to climate extremes.
The Turkana in Kenya and Karimojong in Uganda observed that through conserving the environment, water in the Kobebe Dam in Moroto District will be restored. The pastoralist communities draw water from the dam for their livestock.
With the support from Mercy Corps, a global humanitarian organisation empowering people to recover from crisis, together with Moroto District leadership, the pastoralists have rolled out a programme to plant trees along river banks in Moroto and Turkana.
Mr Peter Lokuruka, a Turkana pastoralist, told Daily Monitor in an interview that having been sensitised about the importance of protecting the environment, they have embraced the idea of tree-planting to guard against the devastating effects of climate change. He said their livestock has been exposed to direct sunlight due to absence of shade.
Mr John Lokol, another pastoralist from Moroto, said they have so far planted more than 20,000 trees which include acacia and other local species with the aim of restoring water in Kobebe Dam.
“We do a joint weeding and watering of these trees using water from Kobebe Dam and we hope by the end of this year our trees would have grown up well to provide good shades for our livestock,” he said.
Mr Mark Longole, an official working with Mercy Corps, said they are sensitising the two communities to live harmoniously and embrace tree planting.
“At the initiation of the campaign idea, there was a lot of resistance among the two pastoralists community but we did not give up. We sensitised them about the importance of protecting the environment and planting more trees,” he said.
NGOs have teamed up to mobilise communities to plant more trees.
Such NGOs include the Natural Resources and Development (ANARDE) in partnership with Advocates San Frontiers, who launched a door-to-door campaign to sensitise the community in Moroto to protect the environment.
Mr Frank Tumusiime, a lawyer and coordinator at ANARDE, warned that Karamoja Sub-region could become a desert if no action is taken to restore the environment.
memorandum of understanding
Cooperation. On September 12, President Museveni and his Kenyan counterpart, Uhuru Kenyatta signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on a joint cross-border integrated programme for sustainable peace and social-economic transformation for Turkana, West Pokot and Karamoja.
The two leaders signed the MoU in Moroto after touring some of the projects Uganda government had done to mitigate drought in Karamoja.
In the MoU, both communities on the Kenya and Ugandan sides can now harness opportunities for better cooperation, close coordination and peaceful co-existence.
The initiative is also envisaged to bridge isolation gaps and improve livelihoods and socio-economic conditions for sustainable peace and development.