By Our Reporter
In commemoration of World Environment Day, Uganda Breweries Limited Staff in partnership with the Ministry of Water & Environment and Tree Adoption Uganda (TAU), have planted 5000 trees in Nakaseke District.
World Environment Day is commemorated on June 5th every year. This activity is also part of the initiatives to support the Running out of Trees Campaign.
In 2020, the Ministry of Water and Environment launched a National Tree Planting Campaign Running out of Trees (ROOT) to engage local stakeholders in both the public and private sector in making a contribution towards attaining national restoration goals. This year, the Ministry supported by Uganda Breweries Limited aims to plant over 40 Million trees.
Uganda Breweries Limited, on top of this 5000-tree planting initiative has already contributed 330 Million shillings to this initiative which is the equivalent of growing and maintaining 2,200,000(Two Million Two Hundred thousand) Trees.
Speaking at the Tree Planting activity, David Onyango, the Head of Communications & Sustainability, Uganda Breweries Limited emphasized the need to create good relations with our environment so as to fight the negative effects brought about by mismanagement of the ecosystem.
“Uganda’s catchment Areas are vital in providing livelihoods to millions of Ugandans through activities like fishing, trade and providing fresh water. It therefore has become a necessity for Uganda Breweries every couple of years to recommit to tree planting activities in these areas in order to continue to support communities that depend on the lake for their daily bread. We strongly believe that for effective environmental management, improving the livelihoods of people is the first step in the right direction to sustainable growth,” said David Onyango.
Tree Adoption Uganda came on board the Running out of Trees Campaign this year to ease ease monitoring, maintenance, transparency and most importantly accountability of the project and to ensure that the planted trees mature to full capacity.
The Running out of Trees campaign is a 5-year initiative that will run until 2025. This will see a total of 200 million trees be planted across Uganda. It is anchored around private sector joining development partners in supplementing government efforts on the conservation and protection of mainly indigenous tree species that are being lost to different human activities, resulting to an estimated 15million tons of carbon that would have adverse effects on our climate and wellbeing.