Catholic Church rolls out greenbelt project for Greater Luweero

Luweero- The Catholic Church under Kasana-Luweero Diocese has embarked on a Shs2b greenbelt campaign for 18 towns within districts in Greater Luweero Sub-region targeting tree planting as part of its environment awareness campaign.

The campaign in the districts of Luweero, Nakaseke and Nakasongola is part of the already existing programme where the Church tasked each of its parishes to allocate land for tree planting.

The project aims at encouraging Christians to plant trees in their homes and gardens especially fruit trees while in greenbelts, they can plant any of the environment friendly tree species.

“The Church through Caritas-Uganda, [an aid agency], has already engaged authorities and residents about the changing weather patterns as a result of the degraded natural forest cover, wetland destruction and the lack of proper waste management systems,” Fr Hillary Muhezangago, the director Caritas project at Kasana-Luweero Diocese said at the launch of the project and commemoration of the World Environment Day in Kiwoko Town Council, Nakaseke District on Saturday.

“Part of Nakaseke, Luweero and Nakasongola districts are already experiencing harsh weather conditions characterised by prolonged dry spells,”

Caritas is the social development arm of Kasana-Luweero Diocese aimed at poverty eradication, HIV/Aids prevention, improving community livelihood, among others. Fr Muhezangago said under this programme, the diocese will help 18 towns have greenbelts and encourage tree planting on streets.

“The three-year pilot greenbelt project has a component of waste management for both urban and the rural areas,” he added.
The targeted towns for the greenbelt project include; Luweero, Wobulenzi, Bamunanika, Bombo, Zirobwe, Kikyusa, Semuto, Kapeeka, Nakaseke, and Kiwoko.

Others are; Ngoma, Nakasongola, Kakooge, Migeera, Katuugo, Kamira, Ndejje and Butalangu.
Fr Muhezangago said authorities in the beneficiary towns have already signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Caritas on how to manage and own up the project.

“We have already started sensitisation of residents on proper methods for waste disposal through a village development approach where residents are encouraged to have separate waste bins for plastics, bio–degradable waste and the waste material which includes tins and glass. The Church is still lobbying for more funds to roll out the project to other areas,” he added.

This project comes a month after National Forestry Authority (NFA) donated 200,000 indigenous tree seedlings to support a compulsory tree-planting campaign dubbed; ‘Nakasongola go green’.

Fr Muhezangago said the Church plans to collect the bio-degradable waste as raw materials for the briquettes-making factory in Luweero Town.

“Once the residents adopt to the new waste management programme, the residents will also be encouraged to get skills on how to make the briquettes from bio-waste,” the priest said.

Kiwoko Town Council chairperson, Mr Laban Nsereko, said the town secured a two-acre piece of land where the greenbelt has been established.

“The Church has helped the town council plant about 500 trees. We also have a campaign to have residents manage and protect trees planted near their respective business premises. The town council has also encouraged residents to have waste bins at their respective business premises and homes,” Mr Nsereko said in an interview on Saturday.

In an interview with Daily Monitor, the Nakasongola District chairperson, Mr Sam Kigula, said the area has been affected by the indiscriminate tree cutting by charcoal dealers.

“We welcome the initiative by the Church to have the greenbelts in our towns and rural areas. We shall join hands with the Church to ensure that the tree planting project is boosted. The district council passed a resolution to have a tree planting day each year where we target the planting of 50,000 trees within Nakasongola,” Mr Kigula said.

Ms Phoebe Ndagire, 58, a resident of Kiwoko Town Council, appealed to the Church to find a solution to the rampant land evictions in Nakaseke District which discourages residents from planting trees.

BACKGROUND

Efforts to save gazetted forest reserves in Greater Luweero area from encroachment started in 2010 when government entered a concession under a Shs1b World Bank funded project for management of forest reserves.

Kasagala Forest Reservein Katuugo Village was targeted for this project. Under the project, residents were supposed to plant fruit trees and only harvest the shrubs, and engage in honey bee farming.

It was later discovered that many residents had established traditional charcoal kilns in the middle of the forest reserves. Many trees had been cut against the agreement set by NFA. Environmentalists say Greater Luweero Sub-region has lost most of the original forest cover including the natural forests to charcoal and timber dealers.

In 2014, a natural forest reserve in Nyimbwa Sub-county on Kampala-Gulu highway was destroyed and land given to different investment companies and individuals by Luweero District Land Board.

According to NFA records, Uganda has lost about 4.9 million hectares of forest cover, which is an equivalent to 19,000 square miles in the last 30 years. By 2015, the country’s forest cover had reduced to 7,000 square miles from the original 19,000 square miles.
Some forecasts gloomily predict that private land in Uganda will not have forests in the next 10 years.
Uganda’s Vision 2040 targets restoration of the country’s forest cover from 15 per cent in 2010 to 24 per cent by 2040. It remains to be seen if this set target will be achieve .

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