IRIN: A three-year project to increase forest cover and help local communities in eastern Uganda adapt to climate change has been launched. "The planting of one million trees has started to sustain an area of tropical forest in Africa the size of Wales," said John Griffiths, counsel-general of the Welsh Assembly, which is supporting the project. "These trees will not only absorb carbon but provide shade for crops."The US$1 million Territorial Approach to Climate Change (TACC) project, launched in the eastern town of Mbale on 28 October, is also supported by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UK government. It will be implemented in the districts of Bududa, Manafwa and Mbale.
"Mt Elgon's ecosystem plays a crucial role in determining the weather in eastern, central and northern Uganda and western Kenya," said Bernard Mujasi, the Mbale local council chairman. "We hope that by protecting and restoring the forest cover of the mountain and protecting the environment, we will help mitigate the challenge of climate change."
Lebogang Motlana, Uganda country director for UNDP, said the country was highly vulnerable to climate change as illustrated by a landslide in Bududa near Mbale, earlier this year, which left at least 300 people dead and was attributed to deforestation and unseasonable rain….
A tree in the foreground, Uganda's Bwindi Mountains in the background, shot by tajai, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license
No comments:
Post a Comment