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Eco-friendly is a term that can be loosely translated to when human being engage in activities that do not harm the environment.

With recent studies showing that the climate change process has already begun, it is important that we look for ways to conserve our environment and not accelerate global warming. Going green does not literally mean painting your hotel green, planting flowers, and using paper plates but it means that we take several measures that help reduce the harm we bring to our environment. Here are a few steps that a hotel can take to ensure they have an eco-friendly location.

Involve All The Staff

Before you kickstart any campaign or make new changes, it is very important to involve all the staff members in the initiative. Get their ideas and feedback on some of the ones you want to put into action which will make it easy when the time comes to implement all the eco-friendly steps you have.

Small Steps

You can only do a complete overhaul when it is easy for you and the clients or when the hotel is not in its busy season. Therefore, before you jump head first into the green project, it is highly advisable to take small steps. Start with the smallest of things, such as putting recycling bins in every room and office station, electricity management among many other.

Maintain The  Environment

Yes, going green involves planting as many trees, grass, flowers and well manicured bushes around your hotel but it also means maintaining what the hotel found in place. If your hotel is next to the lake, swamp or forest, grow a dependant relationship with the area by not draining the swamps, cutting down tons of trees for expansion or dumping waste in the lake.

Structural Planning

When adding more structures to your hotel opt for materials that will not damage the environment, an example would be how most hotels that are built in forests always create cabins out of some of the wood and in the fact that the structure has to be removed, dismantling it will not be as damaging to the surroundings compared to heavy steel and concrete.

Save Energy

This is highly advisable especially when it comes to electricity use in hotels; you can get power saving bulbs for lighting, gas as an alternative kitchen cooking sauce, use solar heating systems for the pool and educate staff on room maintenance especially when there are no guests. This means that they should turn off lights as well as air conditioning in empty rooms during the hotel’s low season to save energy and of course the amount of money spent on the electricity bills.

Water Use

As important as water is, we never realise how much till the drought which is bad for business. No hotel should run when they are low on water supply or even without water; always ensure that there are tanks that tap rainwater which can be used in the toilets, watering plants and cleaning. Use low flush toilets that do not use as much water, encourage employees to use water sparingly, fix leaking faucets among many other things.

Green Spaces

Include many green spaces in the interior design of your hotel even in the rooms; bring in flower pots, the foyer can have a fountain with a tropical feel to it and maybe add manmade streams connecting the hotel structures. The best example of such eco-harmony would be the Serena group of hotels in Uganda. Each hotel has a unique but aesthetic feel to it that keeps you in contact with nature.

Over the years, the thick vegetation that was covering the countryside of Uganda has gone down by almost 50%. Every year, the country loses a huge chunk of forests is lost to encroachers which has created an imbalance in the weather seasons that Uganda experiences throughout the year.

There are of course several reasons that have led to the encroachment:

Land grabbing, population increase that have started destroying one of the most diverse ecosystem on the continent.

Between the early 90s and 2000s, Uganda has lost over 5 million hectares of forest cover throughout the country which number increases by the year.

Most of the forest reserves are handed over on a silver plate to future investors that have squandered away the forests and destroyed the rest around the factories with the residue from their activities.

Do we understand why forests are important to our environment though?

Reduction of Carbon Footprint

In any healthy environment, there has to balance between the carbon dioxide and Oxygen compounds. Trees help and can assist prevent catastrophic climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide which is mostly stored below the ground within the roots and exhaled by human beings. Oxygen is important, given it is what human beings rely on to live.

Regulates Landslides

When you see a forest’s root network, you will notice that it stabilizes half of the soil, holding together the entire ecosystem’s foundation against erosion by wind or water. Not only does deforestation disrupt all that, but the ensuing soil erosion can trigger new, life-threatening problems like landslides and dust storms.

Medicinal and Food Properties

Most of the tree species in our forests provide the general population with food that has been eaten for generations, as well as provide ingredients for the natural healing products in our medicines that keep us healthy and well. For example, the commonest “mululuza,”  mango trees are used for medicine and food respectively. Mango tree leaves plus it’s berk can be boiled and drunk for medicine.

Homes To Nature

Yes, to us trees are just the many leafy plants but they are homes to a variety of different animals on the Earth, the act as nesting grounds for bird, wild animals such as wolves. This means destruction of forests renders all these creatures homeless.

Flood Control

Tree roots are key allies in heavy rain, especially for low-lying areas like river plains. They help the ground absorb more of a flash flood, reducing soil loss and property damage by slowing the flow.

Provides Material

Half of the world’s raw materials come from our forests; the timber we use in construction, woodwork used for furniture, art among so many other. Using them means we have to cut down some of the trees but that doesn’t mean we do not plant many more others to take their place.

The National Forest Association and the other concerned bodies in charge need to take a stand and educate several Ugandans as to why the forests shouldn’t be cut down. The laws put into place should also be also properly implemented and understood by the people.

The Uganda Wildlife Conservation Education Centre ( UWEC) has announced that it is set to vaccinate all chimpanzees among other animals against COVID-19 at its centre. The UWEC Executive Director, Mr. James Musinguzi revealed this on Wednesday during Zakayo’s Day celebrations held annually every October, 27.

“As UWEC, we are working together with Ngamba Chimpanzee Sanctuary, Dr. Gladys Kamela of Conservation through Public Health and Zoetis Company to get a vaccine called Zoetis, to be able to vaccinate all our chimps and other animals. But of course we shall have to first do some trials with the monkeys to observe how they react,” he revealed.

Mr. Musinguzi also added that the centre will also carry out an outreach Covid-19 vaccination drive for its visitors.

“Since we receive quite a number of people over the weekend, we have given these two days Saturday and Sunday because it has some logistic arrangement that we have to make with Entebbe Regional Referral Hospital, for our clients to be able to come and benefit from the vaccination,” he said.

In the month of July, Ngamba Island Chimpanzees were subjected to Covid-19 tests and all results turned negative.

Five Ugandan startups that are ready for the next level of growth have been selected for the Next Innovation with Japan Accelerator program.

During a pitch day that took place at The Innovation Village recently, startups including M-scan, Laboremus Uganda, ChapChap Africa, Endiro Direct, AkelloBanker, Patasente and Easy Matatu pitched their business solutions and competed against twelve startups to emerge winners of the NINJA Accelerator Uganda program.

Uchiyama Takayuki, the Chief Representative at Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Uganda Office said the startups were required to showcase aspects of relevance, impact, feasibility, readiness, traction and innovation.

“We looked at the business profitability, sustainable business models, future growth strategy and return on investment. For the innovation aspect, we assessed the business incorporation of technology to provide solutions and address societal challenges” Uchiyama said, adding that, “Now that the assessment process is done, the winner will undergo a three-month custom-made program based on their individual business need and capacity so as to achieve their desired level of growth. They will have a chance to access mentorship sessions, executive networking opportunities with partners and investors within the Japan ecosystem and support to test and refine their business idea.”

As part of the accelerator program, each of the five start-ups will receive up to $18,000 proof-of-concept funding to test their ideas. They will also be given the opportunity to raise between $0.5-1 million in investment, Uchiyama added.

The NINJA Accelerator Uganda program comes at a time when many startups are struggling to keep their businesses afloat given the insufficient financial resources, lack of innovation and unawareness of business principles for some.

With programs like these that break down barriers and create a path for entrepreneurs to grow their businesses, The Innovation Village believes that Uganda could produce the continent’s next game changers. The program is now expected to breathe life into some of Uganda’s top startups and catapult socioeconomic transformation.

The Chief Executive Officer, Endiro Direct, Gloria Katusiime said, “Endiro Direct is thrilled to be able to participate in the NINJA Accelerator Uganda program and work with the team to develop a solution that solves a real and often difficult challenge of access to markets for many coffee producers in Uganda and Africa.”

Sharing the same sentiment, Jean Anthony Onyait, the Chief Executive Officer of agriculture finance and tech startup, Akellobanker, said the NINJA Accelerator Uganda program is an opportunity to think big and get creative about its services.

He says, “We will go a long way in building our operational, technological and financial capacity to scale rapidly in Uganda and to expand to other markets in East Africa”.

George Bakka, the Chief Executive Officer of Patasente, a Fintech startup, noted that the NINJA accelerator program has come at a good time in its growth trajectory. It is an opportunity for the startup to learn more, build new capabilities, further refine its product and lay the foundation for both local and regional scale-up.

According to Lema Andrew, the Co-Founder Easy Matatu, joining the program for the first time is an opportunity to access business, technical, investment support as well as gives visibility to its product as it works to fix public transport challenges in Africa.

With the support of the JICA taskforce, the implementing partners, The Innovation Village, Hive Collab and Outbox will each be assigned a startup to train and mentor. This collaboration will be one of the ecosystem’s largest efforts towards supporting startups and entrepreneurs in Uganda.

A group of the United Nations (UN) regional bodies have launched the first online data portal which showcases the progress that all African countries make on sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Under the Africa Regional Collaborative Platform (RCP), 17 regional UN entities on Monday unveiled the Africa UN Data for Development Platform, according to a joint press statement dispatched through the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) on Tuesday 14th, September 20121.

The first-ever platform brings together statistical data across the continent, ensuring easy measuring and evaluating of the progress on SDGs in Africa. It will serve as a one-stop-shop repository that captures high-quality data and evidence from all the African countries.

It is also the first of its kind to raise the profile of statistical progress towards the African Union (AU) vision of Agenda 2063, which seeks to see a prosperous and peaceful Africa by 2063.

“With barely nine years left to achieve the SDGs, making use of common and harmonized data is essential to accelerate progress,” said Assistant Secretary-General Ahunna Eziakonwa, Director of the Regional Bureau for Africa at the UN Development Programme.

The new data portal looks into the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and breaks them down into their 169 targets and 231 indicators, allowing everyone to track progress at the granular level.

The platform enables carrying out in-depth analyses and progress assessments at the target and indicator levels, and link them with national development plans, according to Malawi’s Vice President, Saulos Chilima.

The new data engine also gives users the ability to classify the statistics by various dimensions, such as the eight regional economic communities recognized by AU, least developed countries, landlocked developing nations, and oil-producing, mineral-rich states.

It also repackages the data by key thematic issues, whereby users can categorize SDG indicators by agriculture, energy and health, allowing them to not only analyze the specific progress at the country level but also examine the convergence, similarities and differences among a variety of sub-regional blocs and topics.

The platform will open to all users, including policymakers, planners, program managers, development partners, private sector organizations, civil society groups, academic institutions, researchers, students, media outlets and many others.

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has released a set of recommendations calling for urgent and strong support to help the global tourism sector not only recover from the unprecedented challenge of COVID-19 but to ‘grow back better’. The Recommendations are the first output of the Global Tourism Crisis Committee, established by UNWTO with high-level representatives from across the tourism sector and from within the wider United Nations system.

Recognizing that tourism and transport has been among the hardest hit of all sectors, the Recommendations are designed to support governments, the private sector and the international community in navigating the unparalleled social and economic emergency that is COVID-19.

“These specific recommendations give countries a check-list of possible measures to help our sector sustain the jobs and support the companies at risk at this very moment. Mitigating the impact on employment and liquidity, protecting the most vulnerable and preparing for recovery, must be our key priorities,” said UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili.

Recognising the diverse realities in each country as well as the evolving nature of this crisis, the document will continue to be updated. 

Preparing for recovery now

We must support the sector now while we prepare for it to come back stronger and more sustainable

“We still do not know what the full impact of COVID-19 will be on global tourism. However, we must support the sector now while we prepare for it to come back stronger and more sustainable. Recovery plans and programmes for tourism will translate into jobs and economic growth.” added the Secretary-General.

The Recommendations for Action are the first comprehensive set of actions governments and private sector actors can take now and in the challenging months ahead. Mr Pololikashvili stressed that “for tourism to fulfil its potential to help societies and whole countries recover from this crisis, our response needs to be quick, consistent, united and ambitious”.

Responding today and preparing for tomorrow

In all, this new guide provides 23 actionable recommendations, divided into three key areas:

Managing the Crisis and Mitigating the Impact: Key recommendations relate to retaining jobs, supporting self-employed workers, ensuring liquidity, promoting skills development and reviewing taxes, charges and regulations relating to travel and tourism. The Recommendations are made as a global economic recession looks likely. Given its labor-intensive nature, tourism will be hard hit, with millions of jobs at risk, especially those held by women and youth as well as marginalised groups.

Providing Stimulus and Accelerating Recovery: This set of Recommendations emphasises the importance of providing financial stimulus, including favourable tax policies, lifting travel restrictions as soon as the health emergency allows for it, promoting visa facilitation, boosting marketing and consumer confidence, in order to accelerate recovery. The Recommendations also call for tourism to be placed at the centre of national recovery policies and action plans.

Preparing for Tomorrow: Emphasising tourism’s unique ability to lead local and national growth, the Recommendations call for greater emphasis to be placed on the sector’s contribution to the Sustainable Development Agenda and to build resilience learning from the lessons of the current crisis. The Recommendations call on governments and private sector actors to become build preparedness plans, and to use this opportunity to transition to the circular economy.

About the Global Tourism Crisis Committee

UNWTO formed the Global Tourism Crisis Committee to guide the sector as it responds to the COVID-19 crisis and to build the foundations for future resilience and sustainable growth. The Committee comprises representatives of UNWTO’s Member States and Affiliate Members, alongside the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), and the International Maritime Organization (IMO). The private sector is represented by Airports Council International (ACI), Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), International Air Transport Association (IATA) and World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) to ensure a coordinated and effective response.

The tourism industry in Uganda has good news, another baby Rhino has been born at the Ziwa Rhino sanctuary, off the Kampala-Gulu highway, Nakasongola district in the Kafu river basin. This new born has brought the total number of the formerly extinct white rhino given birth to in Uganda to five in less than years.

Rhinos were mostly found in Murchison falls national park and Kidepo national park. But with the wars in 1970’s, they were extinct through poaching and currently, they are only in Ziwa rhino sanctuary. Tourists en route to Murchison falls national park for wildlife tour always make a one hour stop over to track the rhinos before proceeding to the park.

The government has a future plan to re-introduce the rhinos in the parks once they breed a good number of them.

Angie Genade the executive director of the Rhino Fund Uganda noted that this newly born Rhino came months just after the recent birth of “Malaika” calf on 2^nd July, 2011 and added that it’s a blessing to Uganda’s conservation society as she is the only country worldwide with such an advancement in Rhino conservation.

Wildlife tours generate more foreign exchange in the tourism industry in Uganda, only second to Gorilla tracking tours which is done in Bwindi Impenetrable national park and Mgahinga national park.