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Forests cover one third of the Earth’s land mass, performing vital functions around the world.
Approximately 1.6 billion people – including more than 2,000 indigenous cultures – depend on forests for their livelihoods, medicines, fuel, food and shelter.

Uganda‘s diverse forest ecosystem is important for both nature conservation and human development through the water cycle and soil development. These forests are a required partner for the agricultural sector, the country’s backbone.

However, the country continues to suffer from unprecedented rates of deforestation and forest degradation and destruction of other natural/protected areas like wetlands, swamps despite concerted efforts by government and non-government actors to protect and restore these natural resources.

Overall, the country has been losing on average 122,000 ha/year
of forest every year from 1990-2015 with greatest loss in the country estimated at 250,000 ha of forests per year between 2010 and 2015 (MWE 2016).

In 2010, Kasese had 153kha of tree cover, extending over 46% of its land area. In 2021, it lost 596ha of tree cover, equivalent to 328kt of CO₂ emissions. From 2000 to 2020, Kasese experienced a net change of -2.10kha (-1.9%) in tree cover.  https://www.globalforestwatch.org.

The major causes of these destructions have been linked to Kasese’s rapid population growth, bad farming methods across hilly areas that have left them bare, unguided agricultural activities along river banks and swamps and wetlands, massive deforestation among others.

For example the national census of 1969 enumerated the population of Kasese Town at 7,213 people. In 1980, the census that year put the population of the town at 9,917. In 1991, the national census numerated 18,750 inhabitants in Kasese. That population had increased to 85,697 people, according to the 2002 national census. On 27 August 2014, the census and national housing survey enumerated 101,065 people in Kasese Town Council

In 2020, the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), estimated the mid-year population of the town at 115,400 inhabitants. UBOS calculated that the population of Kasese Municipality increased at an average rate of 2.3 percent annually, between 2014 and 2020.

Looking at this population trend you would expect a serious competition on the limited land that never expands but also surrounded with two national parks, Queen Elizabeth and Mt.Rwenzori, the lakes and rivers among others.

As a result several disasters have hit kasese District and Kasese Municipality has either not been spared.

In May 2020 Kasese experienced one of the worst disasters in her history. This followed a massive one that had earlier happened in 2013, the floods ravaged the entire Municipality and left properties worth millions of shillings and some lives lost. This was the start of the striking nature that had either been tampered with by the local communities that facilitated the catastrophe. https://gedauganda.org/floods-ravage-kasese-destroy-kilembe-mines-hospital-and-other-property-worth-billions-of-money-again/

To-date the effects and damage of the 2013 & 2020 floods are still vivid especially in Kilembe and the lower parts of Kasese Municipality, there has been a repeat of these floods though not at the magnitude of the 2020 situation.

Photos above: Remains of the houses during the 2013 & 2020 floods in Kilembe and heavy debris carried by the flooded Nyamwamba river then.

In 2022 another serious disaster of mudslides happened in Kasika a small trading center at the out skirts of Kasese central Municipality killing 16 persons and leaving property worth huge sums of money destroyed. People were left homeless and re-located to an internally displaced peoples’ camp (IDP) to-date.

Photos: Destruction of property and lives in Kasika September 2022 mudslides-Kasese

These catastrophes are not about to end unless measures have been put in place to stop this.

However, all is not lost. The Government of Uganda is doing all it’s best to avert such situations in the entire country. Currently the restoration of the Nyamwamba river valley in Kasese Municipality is being done as one of the efforts to put an end to this river flooding. Several other efforts are being done by different stakeholders to supplement the Government efforts.

In the same vein, Kasese Municipality and Expertise France, under the Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa (CoM SSA) initiative to make cities in Sub Saharan Africa resilient in the fight against climate change and ensuring access to clean energy are supporting the municipality to;

1. Conduct a land cover and landuse mapping and assessment for Kasese Municipality with focus on forest cover, develop an urban forest management action plan and a practical implementation strategy and  as well build local capacity in GIS and urban forest management and;
2. Develop an inventory of wetlands and river banks in Kasese Municipality, survey, demarcate their boundaries  and  develop a wetland management plan with a practical implementation strategy and build local capacity  in  participatory community based  approaches to restoration of degraded wetlands.

All this is being done with technical guidance of Gender-Environment and Development Action Uganda, a Ugandan not for profit organization with expertise and experience in Environment management.

Several activities have been going on and the recent one has been building the  capacity of the community (20 TOTs) in practical implementation of the developed wetland  management strategy, opening up,  survey and demarcating the boundaries of all wetlands and river banks in Kasese Municipality to prevent further encroachment on the same.

Gender Environment and Development Action has played a role in this restoration after a partnership with Kasese Municipality and Expertise France. A number of other activities are still at large to complete the assignment including planting beacons along the boundaries of  wetlands and river banks in Kasese Municiplaity, develop a comprehensive wetlands management  action plan and its practical implementation strategy  emphasizing priority actions for the  different wetlands.

The restoration work and safeguarding these natural resources to prevent a repeat of the previous catastrophes is however not a one man’s assignment and still needs a lot of efforts from different stakeholders. There is need to do more sensitization of the communities to understand the risks of destroying these places, afforestation especially in the already destroyed hilly and river bank areas among others.

It is our responsibility as stakeholders and actors in this sector to provide leadership and guidance to our communities for a resilient and dignified lives for all.

Uganda has mostly a tropical climate characterized by stable rainfall patterns. However,  the effects of climate change have turned the seasons around with the country experiencing shorter or longer rains and harsher droughts and  increasingly becoming severe, affecting the lives of the country’s citizens.

Kasese District in Western Uganda where GEDA operates has been hit hard by several climatic change catastrophes. Repetitive Hydrological floods, mudslides, long periods of drought among others. The recent being the Kasika mudslide that saw about 16 lives lost and property worth millions of shillings lost.

The major causes of these effects have been human causes such as cutting down of trees (deforestation), bad farming practices especially in hilly areas and along river banks among others.

In trying to mitigate these climate change risks, CSOs in Kasese organised and held a climate change walk to raise community awareness in Kasese Municipality as one of the areas most affected.

Key among the activities was planting trees in the Kasese industrial park and talks to different groups of people in the area.

Speaking to the media during the walk, Yosia Baluku from GEDA thanked the organisers of the walk and committed GEDA’s support towards mitigation of the climate change challenges in the region. he further informed the participants that GEDA uganda was also working on a project in partnership with Kasese Municipality financed by Expertise France and a 1 acre modal had been planted with trees in Nyakabingo II. He said that it was everyone’s responsibility to restore our environment for a better future.

Urban forest management action plan and strategy development, Land use and Land cover mapping is a project being implemented by Kasese Municipality with Financial support from Expertise France. It is a joint partnership between Kasese Municipality, Expertise France under the Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa (CoM SSA) initiative to make cities in Sub Saharan Africa resilient in the fight against climate change and ensuring access to clean energy.

The project has a number of activities and among them has been equipping Municipality Technical staff especially those in charge of environment, planning and engineering with skills in QGIS (Quantum Geographic Information System).

The five days training was conducted by KENRO consults a company that was hired to implement the project with technical support of GEDA Uganda that supervises the project implementation.

A number of modules were covered including but not limited to General Introduction to GIS AND GEOSPATIAL DATA, Essential workflows, Spatial Analysis, Land use, land cover mapping, Map production among others.

In his remarks while officiating at the  opening of the 5 days training, the Town Clerk Kasese Municipality encouraged the participants to embrace the training and translate the skills into practice as they go about their official assignments. He added that he trusted the team that was undergoing the training and that he was confident of the results.

Above: Training sessions

Speaking at the closure of the training Ms.Medius Bihunirwa from GEDA Uganda applauded the team that had trained and the trainer Mr. Abubaker from KENRO. She encouraged the senior team from the Municipality not to stop at the training but continuously find time and practice as this was a practical subject that needed continuous practice. The participants agreed to form a whatsapp group that would act as a link between them and the trainer. Further discussions will be held to complete the course as the 5 days were not enough to cover all the content.

At the end of the training all participants were able to create different maps using the skills acquired.

Some of the sample maps during and after the training.

Uganda is experiencing significant impacts of climate change, which include changing weather patterns, drop in water levels, and increased frequency of extreme weather events like floods, mudslides, as well as drought, whose social economic impacts make communities very vulnerable.

It is already widely accepted that extreme weather events have been increasing and have been more severe in recent years. It is estimated that the risks are likely to increase in the future in large parts of Uganda. The National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) State of Environment Report (NEMA, 2012) estimates losses and damage to the tune of US$47 million to crops, which is equal to about 3 per cent of the value of all cash and food crops in that year. Other extreme events have resulted in even bigger losses, possibly as much as 30% of the sector’s normal output and recently even worse.

Kasese District has not been left the same after several catastrophic climate change events have happened. Kasese and surrounding areas have had repetitive floods, mudslides among others due to the several rivers that have burst their banks nearly every year. Kasese Municipality has either not been spared by the famous Nyamwamba river and other neighbouring streams that have burst their banks causing losses worth millions of shillings and lives. The most recent has been the Kasika mudslide that claimed about 16 lives and millions worth of property, crops destroyed. This is a clear indication of nature striking.

One of the major causes of these catastrophes is the continued cutting down of trees, bad farming practices especially at the river banks among others. Hills have been left bare that make them prone to mudslides.

It is against this back ground that Kasese Municipality is implementing a land cover and landsuse mapping project with focus on forest cover, developing an urban forest management action plan and a practical implementation strategy and   build local capacity in GIS and urban forest management.

The project is implemented Under the Covenant of Mayors for Sub Saharan Africa Initiative with financial support from Expertise France.

Gender-Environment and Development action was incorporated in the project implementation to first of all refine a clear terms of reference for implementation but also to foresee and supervise the entire project implementation.

The key activities of the project will include but not limited to;

• Developing a GIS map of Kasese Municipality showing land cover and land use highlighting forest cover and open spaces by Ward.
• Developing 3 Satellite images showing land cover and land use of Kasese Municipality from 2000 using the five year interval, Statistical tables showing the trends in land cover and land use, An Urban forest action plan for Kasese Municipality.
• A clear urban forest management implementation Strategy developed with practical and feasible interventions in consultation with key community stakeholders
• Classification of the unplanted area in the municipality by ownership, intended use and recommendation of interventions for the identified and classified unplanted areas and solution for mitigating or resolving conflicts between farming operations and incompatible land uses
• Established dedicated green belts/community woodlots around/within institutions (schools, churches, etc.) for carbon neutral development and provision of sustainable wood supply for their needs
• Train Kasese municipality staff in GIS packages and equipped with GIS tools to enrich planning and monitoring of climate adaptation and mitigation interventions.
• TOTs equipped with practical skills in urban forest management on a one acre model demonstration to improve the tree survival rate.
• A one hectare modal of tree planting and management will be part of the project and thereafter other practical interventions to avert climate change hazards will be implemented.

Speaking at the project inception meeting, the managing Director Gender-Environment and Development Action emphasized quality and timely work by the project implementing team and assured full support and guidance to the team.

The town clerk Kasese welcomed the project and emphasized that the slogan for Kasese Municipality “Where nature meets” is indeed real where you will find the lakes, Kazinga channel, wild life among others in just one place.

The Expertise France Country coordinator Ms.Caroline Sawe thanked the stakeholders for having turned up and promised continued support to Kasese Municipality. She said that this kind of support is only extended to a few urban centers they work with. In Uganda for example she said Expertise France only supports Kasese Municipality and Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCCA). She emphasized full utilization of the opportunity.

The representative of the mayor Kasese Municipality pledged support to the project but also emphasized that planting of trees must be compulsory to every individual.

An incorporation of another project on WETLAND ACTION PLANNING & INVENTORY FOR KASESE MUNICIPALITY will soon commence to supplement the first project.