World Environment Day 2015
JEEP celebrated the World Environment Day on 5th June 2015. JEEP joined Government and other civil society organisations in Uganda to celebrate the day at Sacred Heart Senior Secondary School Kiteredde in Rakai District.
The global theme of this year’s World Environment Day was ‘Seven Billion Dreams. One Planet’ while the national theme was, “35 Million People, Limited Resources, Consume with Care.” These two themes serve as a wake-up call for us to take better stewardship of our natural resources to insure our survival and that of future generations. The well-being of humanity, the environment, and the functioning of the world’s economy ultimately depend upon the responsible management of the planet’s natural resources.
It was noted that there is mounting evidence that we are increasingly consuming far more resources than what the planet can produce sustainably. This is putting humanity at risk of hunger (food insecurity), drought, disease and death.
Currently, the majority of the population in Uganda depends on subsistence and rain-fed agriculture. 90 percent of them also rely on wood fuel as a source of energy. At an average annual growth rate of 3.03 per cent, Uganda’s population is projected to increase to 35.0 million in 2015 and to 47.4 million in 2025. This projected population growth is bound to exert more pressure on the existing natural resources which calls for adoption of sustainable production and consumption patterns.
JEEP applauds Government’s commitment of putting in place a number of policies, legal and institutional frameworks, to address environmental degradation and climate change. However, there is need for renewed commitment to effectively implement and translate these policies in to real action on ground. Under the KAL project (Renewable energy and Climate Change Mitigation in Uganda); JEEP is running to 2017, we advocate and lobby communities and leaders to protect the natural resources we enjoy – our wetlands, lakes, rivers, and forests; wildlife habitats and abundant farmland.
We need also to promote home-grown solutions – more so, solutions that put people at the centre of environment and natural resource protection. By harnessing our home-grown solutions, and preserving the natural resources that make Uganda the Pearl of Africa, we can show that sound environmental policies can go hand-in hand with economic development. So we should all consume the natural resources with care for our future generations.
