NEMA:Restoration of Mabiira forest possible by planting trees.

As Uganda joined the rest of the world to commemorate International Day for Biodiversity, Government through the National  Environment management authority, National  forestry Authority are rallying the entire Nation towards tree plating.

This was announced during a restoration exercise in Mabira Forest where over one million trees were planted in a bid to have full restoration of some sections of the forest that have been depleted through encroachment and human activity.

The Executive Director National Environment management Authority Dr Barirega Akankwasa says following the renewed exercise of re planting trees its time for all Ugandans to  unite and put nature on a path to recovery by 2030 for the benefit of the people and the planet by restoring nature, using nature wisely, valuing nature and conserving nature.

The National Environment Act (2019) defines biological diversity as the variability among living organisms from all sources, including terrestrial ecosystems, aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part such as diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems.

In short, biodiversity is the variety of living things and is categorized into ecosystem, species and genetic diversity.

Biodiversity is fundamental to human well-being, a healthy planet, and economic prosperity for all people. Biodiversity underpins human because of the services it provides referred to as ecosystem services which are supporting services, provisioning services, regulating services and cultural services.

The supporting services include nutrient recycling, soil formation, primary production; the provision services include food, medicine, clean water, clean air, wood and fibre, fuel; the regulating services include climate regulation, flood regulation, disease regulation and water purification. Cultural services include aesthetic values, spiritual values, educational and recreational values.

Despite the importance of biodiversity for human well being, biodiversity is on the decline globally, regionally and nationally mainly due to destructive human activities.

Forests, wetlands, species and genetic diversity are all declining and as result ecosystems services and benefits from ecosystems are declining.

In Uganda the forest cover in 1900 was estimated at about 10 million hectares  but this has now declined to the current estimate of less than 2 million hectares.

Taking into account the importance of biodiversity for human well being, the global community adopted at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to help in tackling loss of biodiversity. Uganda ratified the CBD on 8th September 1993.

The CBD has three objectives that guides global effort in addressing biodiversity loss namely conservation of biodiversity, sustainable of components of biodiversity (ecosystem, species and genetic) and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from utilization of genetic resources.The international day for biodiversity (IDB) is celebrated every 22 May.