KAMPALA, UGANDA — Uganda, one of Africa’s richest countries for biodiversity, has launched the second phase of the Biodiversity 2030 (BIODEV) project to address the alarming rate of biodiversity loss in the country.
“This second phase of the BIODEV2023 builds on Phase One, implemented by our partner organization, WWF,” said Moses Egaru, Country Representative for IUCN in Uganda. “Phase One aimed to mobilize stakeholders, including government, civil society, private sector, and communities, to address biodiversity degradation and ecosystem degradation in Uganda.”
The UGX 1.2 billion project, launched in Kampala on Wednesday, June 3, aims to promote sustainable production practices and reconcile biodiversity with development. Uganda is home to over 18,783 species of flora and fauna, with most of its biodiversity found in natural forests, mountains, savannahs, wetlands, lakes, and rivers. However, the country has lost approximately half of its overall biodiversity value between 1975 and 1995, with the rate of loss remaining high at 10-11% per decade.
“Phase Two will implement these voluntary commitments, aimed at reducing biodiversity loss and influencing policy and practice to end biodiversity loss through a multi-sectoral approach,” Mr. Egaru explained. “We will work with various sectors, including the private sector, civil society, district local governments, indigenous people, development partners, and others.”
The project’s overall objective is to contribute to the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal framework by promoting changes in production practices that reconcile biodiversity and development. Specific objectives include supporting national public authorities in reforming sectoral public policies to take better account of biodiversity and facilitating stakeholders in one pilot landscape to collectively develop actions to reduce pressures on biodiversity.
“We will also support the building of the capacity of these stakeholders to be able to tackle issues of biodiversity loss, climate change, natural resource degradation, but also an interesting aspect has come up where our population growth is also impacting heavily on the natural assessment,” Egaru said. “So how can we work even with our colleagues who are in the human capital development space to be able to tackle these challenges, but the most important thing is that we have to work jointly.”
He hailed the French Development Agency, which is funding this program through Expertise France.
Dr. Paul Mambu, the Commissioner for Crop Inspection and Certification in the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Fisheries spoke of efforts to deal with biodiversity loss.
“As a ministry, we are promoting the use of non-chemical methods. For example, to fight off pests and diseases, you can use living plants to inter-crop with the beneficial plants you’re growing, which can repulse off the pests so that they don’t attack your plant because of some of the chemicals they give off. So that helps you to avoid applying chemicals,” Mwambu said. “If you are to apply chemicals, we recommend that this should be the last option, after you have tried everything else and it’s not working. However, in the interim, we promote what we call Integrated Pest Management, using all different forms which are friendly to other life forms and which can make agricultural production sustainable.”
The project’s relevance to the national biodiversity conservation agenda was emphasized, and the importance of collective action to address biodiversity loss was stressed.