Religious, Cultural, and Community Based Organizations have joined forces in the fight against climate change and its effects in Lango sub-region. The group has joined the “Trees are not our commodity” campaign spearheaded by Action for Child Social and Economic Transformation (ACSET), an NGO to mitigate climate change.
The campaign, which will run for 12 months aims to make climate change a locally rooted conversation among citizens, cultural leaders, private sector players, and political departments in the districts and sub-counties. It is geared toward the protection of existing forest reserves and endangered tree species such as Shea nut trees.
Bruno Sserunkuma Akejo, the Director of ACSET Uganda explains that they are using all the available structures to ensure that everyone is involved in the fight against climate change. The organization is creating a community-based environmental protection movement that unites the region thus leading to joint protection of the environment.
Patrick Abal, the Minister for Culture, Heritage, and Tourism under Lango Cultural Foundation, says that the cultural institution has a plan to plant five acres of trees in every district. The institution also entered a partnership with the Busoga Kingdom to plant trees along the shores of Lake Kwania, Kyoga, and the Nile River.
Abal added that the Cultural Foundation has also come up with strategies like “Tour the Lango- a four- days- bicycle ride across the sub-region where participants plant trees at every destination. He, however, says this was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and plans are underway to revamp it by March 2013.
He further explained that the institution has also identified historical sites such as Tyen Olum, Got Otuke (Otuke Hill), and Kungu where the religious people gained entry to Lango sub-region and others for development into eco-tourism sites.
Whereas Reverend Captain Patrick Benson Ogwang, the Vicar of All Saints Cathedral Boroboro believes that the protection of the environment creates a stronger relationship between God, man, and land, a reason why the Anglican church is now implementing a policy of tree planting by providing seedlings to all institutions of learning under their foundation.
The Reverend further explains that since the church has an opportunity to address congregations on different occasions, they will use it to sensitize the community on the importance of protecting the environment instead interfering with it.
Similarly, Grace Baluka, the project manager at Caritas under Lira Diocese says that they have embarked on tree planting because several other campaigns introduced before have not yielded the desired fruits. The catholic church is not only advocating for tree planting but also erecting cages for collecting polythene papers at every homestead within the diocese.
ACSET has also partnered with Lango Indigenous Hip Hop artists to compose climate awareness songs as a tool to educate and motivate the community on climate change action. Martin Ocen Odyek, the representative of the Lango Indigenous Hip Hop artists, says that Hip Hop has a bigger following, and using it to spread the messages about climate change will help it reach out to the general public.
In November 2022, Egypt will host the 27th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP27, with the view of building on previous successes and paving the way for future ambition. This is a golden opportunity for all stakeholders to rise to the occasion and effectively tackle the global challenge of climate change on the African continent.
Climate change is one factor that is hampering Uganda’s efforts to end poverty because the country continues to experience adverse weather changes like prolonged drought, devastating floods, and mudslides. URN