Worried for the safety of Mt. Elgon communities, Green Africa Youth Organization Uganda joins volunteers to plant trees
By Isaac Ndyamuhaki
This September, Green Africa Youth Organization Uganda joined other community based initiatives in Mt.Elgon area in the “One Tree Planted, 2022 Plant a Tree Day” in Uganda.
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This was done in Ssume Micro catchment in Bukalasi sub-county where deep cracks have been identified in addition to the landslide scars in the same catchment.
It also covered sites of the most recent landslides and degraded belts of the national park. This tree planting exercise covered a total of 3ha of degraded landscape.
A total of 85 volunteers comprised of the youth were mobilized to plant 5000 indigenous tree in the identified area.
Youth who participated in the tree planting operation
Other Stakeholders including the Uganda Wildlife Authority, Manafwa Watershed Restoration Project and local community were be highly engaged in this “Plant a Tree” event.
This builds to our Trees4Biodiversity initiative since the trees are vital for replenishing the degraded habitats as well as increasing the diversity of flora and fauna in any ecosystem.
Climate change remains a big global challenge undermining the livelihoods of communities. In Mt. Elgon, climate change induced disasters remain a problem with more occurrences of flash floods and landslides that have left scores dead, thousands displaced and valuable properties destroyed.
According to Ministry of Health, Mbale Regional Emergency Operations Center, the recent flash floods and landslides in the Mt. Elgon resulted into loss of 29 lives, displacement of 5600 people, property worth millions destroyed and leaving 35600 people at risk.
Human activities including deforestation and intensive cultivation in the mountain slopes remain a key factor in increasing occurrence and severity of these scenarios. This has attracted different actors especially in the academia to conduct studies and among the key recommendations, tree planting and conservation have been highlighted.
Many thanks go to other tree planting actors and organizations that participated including One Tree Planted, Africa 2000 Network, and Rural Water Initiative for Climate Action, Mt.Elgon Tree Growing Enterprise and most importantly farmer innovators and other youth volunteers who made the event successful.
The author Isaac Ndyamuhaki is an environmentalist
