My Notes

Together we can restore the forest cover.

Uganda loses over 92,000 Ha of its natural forest cover annually, of which 73,000 Ha is lost on private land; outside the legal jurisdiction of NFA and 7,000Ha in protected areas i.e. Wildlife Parks and CFRs.

Following that rate of deforestation we are likely to face the wrath of nature the climate that is global warming, loss of biodiversity and depletion of the Ozone layer.

And as I write now these calamities are not distant because we have already witnessed this in the Bamasaba land (Bududa). This is not the right time to blame each other for what we have done to annoy nature rather the time to reconcile with it through restoring what we had destroyed in the past few decades.

It is neither the government nor the individuals that are responsible for environmental degradation but instead everyone either directly or indirectly. Our greatest concern now should be what can we do now restore forest cover other than lamenting over what we lost. Let’s start now by planting trees, vacating the wetlands and do not endanger a few natural resources which still exist on both protected areas and private land.

With the tree planting campaigns boosted National Forestry Authority like the Community Tree planting project and other initiatives like managing forest with forest adjacent communities. We feel, greening the country is a responsibility of every Ugandan to plant trees, when nature strikes its anger it does not spare any neither the rich nor the poor.

Through this project the government of Uganda is providing some funds for the sawing seeds for you and to plant trees that means if you are not a beneficiary of your own taxes.

It’s a call for individuals, government agencies, politicians, communities and organizations to link together and play a role in the management of our environment and restore the degraded forests in Uganda if Ugandans see the need to mitigate the threats of climate change.

Love, Be a Spiritual, Living Revelation

Earth hath no remorse for its own terror,

Likened upon for the human drilling of its

Death laden black sap, making fools of their

Feeble science, having done no more than

The atom denting of its crust...

Be they must, war, likened the lunacy of

Moon to play with ocean tide, lands belching

Of indigestion, puked upon all existing,

Showing no bias or prejudice from within its

Unpredictable wake...

When will we not see so blindly that all

Terror be myopically ill, contaminating

Without self immunity, less we deal

Empathetically with our ignorance and

Hypocritical solutions for peace...

With Love immortal, help enlighten a

Darkened awakening, invalidating prophesying

Fools and predictions of Armageddon....

                                                                                  

LUST AND LOVE

William is 56 years old and he is married with five children but again he has a girlfriend commonly known as (side dish) who is 24 years old and a third year student at University.

Such kind of relationships have confused and corrupted the minds of many people be the elderly or the young ones because of the conditions embedded in these relationships.

Some times we fail to draw a line between what many people term as love and lust because people are in relationships not only for love but many other reasons.

Reasons why many people are in relationships are quite funny and sometimes noteworthy depending on the circumstances these people have gone through;

James a 25 year old who is dating 47 year old widow with three kids explains his story of the past which explains the present situation.

“I have been disappointed by the girl of my dream who was of my age, the only option I had is to find a comfort zone in this widow who had lost hopes like me.”  

This kind of relationship do not always last long because every time when a conflict arises between these it is always a regret since the relationship was no based on true love. 

This has increasingly caused divorce among married couples, high rates of HIV/AIDS infections, domestic violence and wrong choice of married partners.

In our society today it is not a guarantee that whoever says “I love you” would be meaning it, the word love has lost its real meaning.

Most of us like William misuse this opportunity of being loved. I believe every one has love and in the world of love every body finds that true love for only one partner in the life time.

Anita the girlfriend to William said “I truly do not love William but I need financial assistance until I finish campus and he has to get me a job too.”

This lust kind of love exists mostly in the relationship between the married couples and their unmarried partners or even married couples also.

I ask my self if it is true and real when a married man frankly tells you that “I am married but there is something special in you and I would real love to discover it.”  

In the first place by telling you that he is married this would be a warning that you have to respect his marriage status and should not intervene with his marriage life.

Anita explained that William went ahead to order her not to inconvenience him with phone calls in the evenings and weekends when he is having good moments with his family.

This would be a clear explanation to young girls that this special thing they want to discover in them is just the exposure of their bodies.

This may be truly that body structures are different from their wives but yet there is nothing much like a secret that needs discovery.

While true love is between spouses who develop natural feelings for each other for no material affections and it is this feeling that grows to marriage which is rare today.

As the world has become a global village through the use of internet use for example social network sites have increasingly promoted lust over true love since it give much exposure than deep understanding of the people.

Be partners to restore forest cover in Uganda

There is a great threat to Uganda’s forest cover following a heavy cut down of trees on both Central Forest Reserves and private forests all over the country and this degradation of the forest cover has destroyed the ecosystem hence qualifying Uganda to being a victim of climate change calamities.

NFA is a national agency mandated to manage Central Forest Reserves on a sustainable basis and also supply quality seedlings. On observing the rate at which Uganda is losing its forest cover i.e. 92000h per year. Following the prediction that if this rate continues Uganda will not have any forest by 2050 and this will be the greatest catastrophe that Uganda has ever faced.

Following this NFA has developed strategies of restoring the degraded forests in Uganda, also protecting and conserving the undestroyed parts of the forest reserves. Among the strategies include NFA partnering with corporate organizations, Non Government organizations, International Organizations and other Government Organizations in tree planting projects and so far it has been a success.

It is upon this initiative that NFA with Barclays Bank has planted trees on 50 hectares to restore Bujuuko Central Forest Reserve along Mityana road, NFA with NBS still running a tree planting campaign thirty one million people thirty one million trees, NFA with MTM have planted trees in Kyewaga CFRs, NFA with Century Bottling Company (Coca Cola) have planted 10 hectares in Busitema Central Forest Reserve and many other organizations have come up to support this noble cause.

With this effort to replant Central forest reserves by NFA and other organization will yield great success if coupled with the willingness to protect and conserve the planted trees by the communities’ neighbouring these forests.

And this should act as a reminder to other organizations most especially corporate organizations that despite their profit motives it is also a call that they should join NFA this noble cause of planting tree as mitigation towards climate change effects in our country.  

The National Forestry Authority is also implementing a new approach of Collaborative Forest Management (CFM) which is well constituted in the National Forestry and Tree planting Act 2003. With this new approach of CFM the responsible body for forests NFA collaborates with the communities to manage Central Forest Reserves.

With this approach NFA teams up with communities neighbouring the reserves in tree planting for conservation and the communities are given 5% of the area in the reserve to plant trees for commercial purposes, the communities form groups which are registered as Community based organizations.

In this partnership the communities are authorized by NFA to do other economic generating activities which do not affect the growth of trees planted or already existing like bee hive keeping and food crops when like beans and Irish when the trees are still young and this is done under strict supervision of NFA field staff to avoid further destruction of Central Forest Reserves and the forest cover in general.

Such partnerships could see Uganda regaining its forest cover in less than 10 years, but however other communities, politicians, and organizations have not been corporative in several programs launched by the government through its arms/agencies in the bid to restore the forest cover and the environment generally.