Involve women, youth in environment conservation– govt told
A section of Bugoma Forest Reserve. Environmentalists have urged Uganda to adopt gender inclusive conservation approaches. PHOTO/JULIET KIGONGO
What you need to know:
- Environmentalists have urged Uganda to adopt gender inclusive conservation approaches.
As Uganda prepares for implementation of REDD+ activities, government has been advised to consider the gender participatory approach to avoid negative impacts of the projects to communities.
REDD+ is a United Nations framework to encourage developing countries to reduce emissions and enhance removals of greenhouse gases through a variety of forest management options in efforts to mitigate climate change.
In Uganda, the Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE) in partnership with the UN Environment Programme seek to implement REDD+ to enhance the role of conservation, sustainable management of forest carbon stocks (REDD+) and increase result-based payments in Uganda.
Stakeholder Engagement Specialist Christine Mbatuusa observed that most of Uganda’s activities around forest management and conservation are male dominated.
“Do not limit the participation in REDD+ activities to only men but instead be inclusive in terms of gender,” she urged during a capacity building workshop for district natural resources officers and the Civil Society workers in Kagadi District on June 25.
She added: “Consider the social roles of women, youth and children in forest conservation, taking into consideration how they will benefit from the activities.”
The MWE in partnership with the Environmental Management for Livelihood Improvement Bwaise Facility (EMLI) organized the workshop to gather feedback on the standards including the stakeholder engagement plan, draft initial The REDD+ Environmental Excellence Standard (TREES) monitoring report and plan of conformance.
Mbatuusa said: “Therefore, the stakeholder engagement plan seeks to facilitate effective engagement of relevant stakeholders in the design and implementation of safeguards actions as well as in the monitoring and reporting on ART-TREES safeguards and LEAF processes.”
She suggested that there is a need to prioritize allocation of funds that is targeting the implementation of forest conservation activities to help the district officials to undertake effective monitoring of forests to ensure that they are well managed.
“As we undertake budget allocations at all levels, the forestry sector should be among the priority areas to benefit from the limited resources; resources should be earmarked for enhancing the capacity of communities and Districts Natural Resources Officers in forest monitoring and reporting,” Mbatuusa added.
Bob Kazungu, the National REDD+ Focal Point person at MWE revealed that Uganda has completed the readiness phase, although with some desired improvements on some elements but the country is moving into the demonstration phase before the results-based payment phase.
“There are a number of potential REDD+ actors both in public and private sectors yet some mandates are not yet streamlined. The basis of the existing REDD+ documentation is based on the current institutional mandates, laws and international conventions. Yet some conventions do not have focal points, others need domestic elaboration. There are some gaps in the existing legal, policy and regulatory frameworks,” he noted.
Kazungu said that although no REDD+ implementation has taken place in the country, the outcome indicators are intended and futuristic in nature and we need a plan for conformance in order to demonstrate how they will be actualized.
