NFA to plant 10 million trees

BY SAMUEL NABWIISO

National Forestry Authority plans to plant 10 million trees in a mover to restore Uganda’s forest cover which has been deeply reduced due to human activities across the country.

 According to Tom Okello  the executive Director  of NFA , Uganda’s forest cover  has been reducing at high rate this has exposed Uganda as Country to massive Environmental  Impacts such as climate change , landslides  and soil erosion which has had big impact on the country’s economy thus the need to restore the forest coverage in the country.

 “We are going to plant about 10 million trees starting on the 21^stOf September across the country our attention is to restore the country’s forest cover  which has been highly degraded due to human activities such as the increasing demand for biomass fuels , demand for land for Agriculture activities due to the increasing population in the country “ Okello said.

Aisha NFA Pro and  Okoello during the press conference 

Uganda’s forest cover according to statistics from NFA stated diminishing from 1994 where the total coverage was at 24% but to date such coverage has been reduced to less than 10% currently. The major driver for the loss of the country’s forest cover is the high demand for trees to produce charcoal and fire woods which are the major source of energy in most urban towns in the country.

For the country to regain the lost glory of the forest cover, the country need to plant at least 136000 hectares annually and According to NFA, the agency is read to work with Individuals willing to engage in tree planting.

“We are willing to work with communities by providing free tree seedlings especially for the natural trees such as Mahogany Mvule  to those Individuals NFA has nursery tree  beds across the country which makes it very cheap to access the tree planting materials in the country let us work together for the good of our country” He said.

some of the tree seedlings to be distributed.

The tree planting Exercises is among the key Activities being organized by the tax Body URA as the agency plans to host the 2018 tax payers appreciation week which is expected to kick off on the 26^thOf September to 28^th at the Kololo Airstrip ground.

Addressing the media at the URA Head offices Okello said, NFA will be signing agreements with local Governments to ensure that they engage more local communities in tree planting.

“Government allocates some resources to NFA to implement the community Tree planting programs we shall be using part of the resources to support the local governments to implement the program on behalf of NFA” He said.