Climate Action and Clean Energy; SDG goal #13 and #7 Tree planting, training and mentorship to sustain afforestation through incarcerated populations and institutions
The most recent reports indicate that schools and prisons are one of the biggest consumers of wood fuel yet they contribute minimally to the replacement and restoration of forests in there locality. While addressing a press conference on 29th August 2017, the commissioner general of prisons confessed that a study has showed that prisons only consumes up to 9000 trees every day in wood fuel and yet they have not done a lot to restore them. It’s against this background that the Great lakes peace center is championing the campaign through the schools and prisons as an opportunity to plant what is already lost.
According to Director of Environment, Mr. Paul Mafabi, Uganda has lost 900,000 hectares of forest cover over the last ten years yet the government has planted less than 100,000 hectares, creating a deficit. In the same report he said that the demand for wood fuel is increasing at a sporadic rate thus a need of countering it with planting more trees and creating alternative sources plus energy saving facilities to be adopted. At that rate it means Uganda is losing 90,000 hectares of forest cover every 12 months. This needs to be addressed to combat desertification, promote terrestrial ecosystems and halt biodiversity loss in light with goal number 15 and goal number 13 of the sustainable development goals.