The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has launched the second phase of the Biodiversity 2030 (BIODEV) project to assess the drivers of biodiversity loss caused by the economic sector activities and how to counter them.
Speaking during the launch at Golden Tulip Hotel in Kampala on Wednesday, Moses Egaru, the Country Representative for IUCN in Uganda said the second phase builds on the first one implemented by the World-Wide Fund for Nature.
"Phase one aimed at mobilizing stakeholders, including government, civil society, private sector, and communities, to address biodiversity degradation and ecosystem degradation in Uganda," Egaru said.
According to the Ministry of Water and Environment, Uganda loses biodiversity between 10 and 11 percent every decade with the main threat to biodiversity conservation being the increasing human population and the consequent demand for land.
The IUCN Country Representative said during the first phase of the project, they were able to bring all stakeholders together for discussions and identified the key sectors driving biodiversity loss in Uganda.
"These sectors are the Ministry of Agriculture, through smallholder farmers expanding their land holdings, and the Ministry of Energy, as over 80% of Ugandans rely on biomass for energy. We mobilized the Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Agriculture, and stakeholders to make voluntary commitments towards reducing biodiversity loss.These commitments were signed off by the partners and stakeholders."
He explained that the second phase will therefore focus on implementing these voluntary commitments aimed at reducing biodiversity loss and influencing policy and practice to end biodiversity loss through a multi-sectoral approach.
"Our focus is on implementation on the ground, designing large-scale programs, influencing policy and practice, and building stakeholders' capacity to tackle biodiversity loss, climate change, natural resource degradation, and population growth impacts on natural resources," Egaru said.
"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. 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."
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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 intercrop 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."
He explained that the Ministry of Agriculture helped develop the National Agricultural Organic Policy, which was passed by cabinet in 2019, just before COVID struck and recognizes all these good forms of farming while preserving nature.
" For example, when you spray chemicals, they can kill off the pest, but in the process, they will kill off many other beneficial organisms. under, for example, the National Organic Policy and the strategy, we guide farmers on how to use other plants, which can repel off pests without necessarily using chemicals. Use a warm concoction like hot pepper with the covered dung with the cattle urine, and then you spray on the crop. It is so natural, and it will not have any other effects on other living organisms. So, some of those are some of the practices we are promoting."
