Today the Embassy of Sweden, Kampala joins the rest of the World to celebrate the World Environment Day with a focus on time for nature. Environment management and sustainability is one of the 3 pillars of sustainable development alongside the social and economic pillars. Sweden has been one of the most active participants towards sustainable development. Sweden hosted the first UN conference on human environment in 1972 that culminated in a global drive towards sustainable development and greater global efforts towards sustainable management of the global environment culminating in later years into the Rio Convention on Biological Diversity and the Sustainable development goals.
The year 2020 has been highlighted by the United Nations as a special year for the living planet earth as three interrelated global frameworks are anticipated to be negotiated and agreed. These are; the framework on oceans, increased ambition and revision of NDC and approval of rule book for Climate change under the United Nations Framework convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the negotiation of a new Rio+ 2020 Convention on Biological Diversity.
Nature provides a basis for survival and human well being and is critical to delivering the sustainable development goals. For example, Uganda's economy is largely nature dependent. The country's production is largely based on natural resources such as energy from biomass that accounts for 90% of energy supply, water for irrigation and hydropower generation and fisheries. Uganda's tourism sector has been the highest foreign exchange earner and contributed 1.453 billion USD in 2017 (7.3% of GDP). Most of the tourism revenue is related to nature-based tourism in the various national parks, forests and other natural attractions providing 630,000 jobs (6.3% of total employment). Agriculture that depends largely on Uganda's relative fertile soils and climate contributes about 37% of the GDP and 19% of country's exports and provides 70% of employment.
However, nature is increasingly facing threats from human activities ranging from destruction of forests and terrestrial ecosystems, pollution of air and water resources, poaching and animal trafficking, use of agro-chemical, poor waste management, siltation and eutrophication of lakes and rivers. The impact of these challenges include fragmentation and loss of habitats like forests, range lands, wetlands and marine ecosystems, biodiversity loss and loss of revenues to local communities which has potential to drive countries into further poverty. At the same time, the existential threat of climate change is likely to lead to increase in incidences of droughts, landslides, flooding that will modify or change habitats affecting biodiversity, agricultural production, human settlement and food production.
The United Nations has made call to action in 2020 to focuses on conservation and restoration of forests and other terrestrial ecosystems, conservation of fresh water and marine ocean systems, sustainable agriculture and food systems, ensuring nature's role in sustainable development to halt biodiversity loss, mitigation and adaptation to climate change, resilient livelihoods and supporting the green economy. Sweden supports this call for action and believes Uganda has a lot to offer in this endeavor.
Written by Paul Asiimwe
NPO - Productive Sectors, Environment and Climate
Embassy of Sweden
