Category: News

Urbanization refers to the process of population concentration in urban areas, leading to the growth and expansion of cities. It is a fundamental aspect of modernization and economic development, with significant implications for the environment. As populations migrate from rural to urban areas in search of better opportunities, cities grow larger, consuming more resources and generating more waste. This phenomenon has profound effects on the environment, ranging from air and water pollution to habitat destruction and climate change.

One of the most immediate impacts of urbanization on the environment is the alteration of land use patterns. As cities expand, they encroach upon natural habitats, leading to deforestation, loss of biodiversity, and fragmentation of ecosystems. This loss of green spaces not only diminishes the aesthetic value of the landscape but also disrupts ecological processes, such as nutrient cycling and water filtration, which are essential for maintaining ecosystem health.

Moreover, urbanization often results in the conversion of agricultural land into built-up areas, leading to the loss of prime farmland. This can have long-term implications for food security and agricultural sustainability, as arable land becomes increasingly scarce. Additionally, the conversion of natural landscapes into impervious surfaces, such as roads, sidewalks, and buildings, disrupts the hydrological cycle by reducing infiltration and increasing surface runoff, which can contribute to flooding and erosion.

Another significant environmental consequence of urbanization is air pollution. As cities grow, so does the demand for energy, leading to increased emissions from vehicles, industry, and power plants. These emissions release a variety of pollutants, including particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and volatile organic compounds, which can have detrimental effects on human health and the environment. Particulate matter, for example, can penetrate deep into the lungs and cause respiratory problems, while nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds can contribute to the formation of smog and ground-level ozone, which can exacerbate respiratory conditions and damage vegetation.

Furthermore, urbanization can have profound effects on the climate, both locally and globally. The concentration of buildings, roads, and other infrastructure in urban areas creates what is known as the urban heat island effect, whereby cities become significantly warmer than surrounding rural areas due to the absorption and retention of heat by built surfaces. This phenomenon can lead to increased energy consumption for cooling, as well as elevated levels of air pollution and heat-related illnesses. Moreover, the increased emissions of greenhouse gases from urban areas contribute to global climate change, which has far-reaching implications for ecosystems, economies, and human well-being.

In addition to air pollution, urbanization also contributes to water pollution through the discharge of untreated sewage, industrial effluents, and stormwater runoff into rivers, lakes, and oceans. As cities grow, so does the volume of wastewater generated, placing a strain on existing water treatment infrastructure and increasing the risk of contamination. Moreover, the expansion of impervious surfaces in urban areas reduces the natural filtration of rainwater, leading to increased runoff and the transport of pollutants into water bodies. This can have serious consequences for aquatic ecosystems and human health, as contaminated water can lead to the spread of waterborne diseases and the degradation of aquatic habitats.

Furthermore, urbanization can exacerbate social and environmental inequalities, as marginalized communities often bear the brunt of environmental degradation and lack access to essential services, such as clean water, sanitation, and green spaces. This can perpetuate cycles of poverty and environmental injustice, further exacerbating the impacts of urbanization on vulnerable populations.

Despite these challenges, urbanization also presents opportunities for sustainable development and environmental stewardship. By adopting policies and practices that promote compact, mixed-use development, efficient transportation systems, green infrastructure, and renewable energy sources, cities can mitigate the environmental impacts of urbanization and enhance the quality of life for their residents. Moreover, through innovative urban planning and design, cities can create more resilient and adaptive landscapes that are better able to withstand the pressures of urbanization and climate change.

Loss of Agricultural Diversity: Urbanization often leads to the consolidation of agricultural land into large-scale monocultures or the abandonment of agricultural practices altogether. This can result in the loss of agricultural diversity, as traditional crop varieties and farming techniques are replaced with high-yield, genetically uniform crops. The loss of agricultural diversity not only diminishes food security and resilience to pests and diseases but also reduces the genetic pool available for crop breeding and adaptation to changing environmental conditions.

Increased Energy Consumption and Carbon Emissions: The rapid pace of urbanization is accompanied by a corresponding increase in energy consumption, as cities require vast amounts of energy to power buildings, transportation systems, and industry. Much of this energy is derived from fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gas, which emit greenhouse gases when burned. As a result, urbanization contributes significantly to carbon emissions and climate change, both directly through energy consumption and indirectly through land use changes and transportation emissions.

Waste Generation and Management: Urbanization leads to a substantial increase in the generation of solid waste, including household garbage, construction debris, and industrial byproducts.

In conclusion, urbanization is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon with profound effects on the environment. While it presents numerous challenges, from habitat destruction and pollution to climate change and social inequality, it also offers opportunities for sustainable development and environmental conservation.

By recognizing the interconnectedness of urbanization and the environment and implementing policies and practices that prioritize environmental protection and social equity, cities can mitigate the negative impacts of urbanization and create healthier, more resilient communities for future generations.

While a 14-year old pupil in primary five in 1994, Julius Tumushabe got lured into poaching by peers and turned his back on school. On his debut day, he went out into the wilderness of the sprawling Queen Elizabeth National park in a group of six youths who only carried spears and were accompanied by scrawny dogs.

The hunting expedition lasted three days in which the hunters braced the cold nights sleeping under canopies of trees in the park. On the third day they killed a buffalo, an iconic tourist attraction of the celebrated game park.

The poachers cut the buffalo’s carcass into pieces and carried it home, where they received a hero’s welcome upon arrival at their Rwerere village in Kiremba parish, Kihihi Sub County in Kanungu district. The youth feasted on some of the meat with their families but sold most of it using the palms of their hands as weighing scales.

But poaching though dangerous is a habit-forming undertaking in that, as testified by one ex-poacher, when you go once whether you come home with meat or not, you always want to go back hunting again.

As such, Tumushabe says although he felt fearful at the start, he eventually grew in confidence and ended up killing countless number of animals and birds for paltry cash and eating at home during his numerous forays into the Queen Elizabeth National park until the year 2000 when be backed off.

His harrowing tales were made during a fieldwork interface with news editors as part of a week-long training held in Kasese district under the Uganda Editors biodiversity program.

The program organized by the Infonile in partnership with the Wildlife trade monitoring network, TRAFFIC and Internews’ Earth Journalism Network brought together 20 editors from all the major regions of Uganda.

In addition to classroom training with conservation and journalism experts, the training incorporated field visits to conservation projects and natural sites to familiarize the participants with the importance of biodiversity and inspire them to conserve and restore biodiversity.

Ramweri Byaruhanga, the LC1 chairman of Kazinga Lower village, who dropped out of school in 1995 also put forward a narrative similar to that of Tumushabe. Byaruhanga disclosed that he was in P.7 at Kibimbiri primary school in Kihihi Sub County, when he saw poaching as a quick way of putting meat on the table.

“I would see people go in groups to hunt in the game park and it felt enticing. I started following them where I would carry for them snares and traps,” recounted Byaruhanga.

“Whenever they killed an animal, they rewarded me with meat. I would give some meat to be cooked at home and I sold the rest until I raised money to buy my own snares and traps,” he said.

Poverty, tradition key drivers of poaching

Both Tumushabe and Byaruhanga said that after getting married, poaching became more of a duty than a hobby as they assumed the responsibility of having to keep someone’s newly married daughter happy, feed the children and take care of the family.

Some of the reasons for poaching cited by park neighbors are poverty, human-wildlife conflict and cultural practices passed down from for bearers who hunted certain animals such as hippopotamus to feed expectant mothers believing that it would ease labour.

Allen Mgaza, an expert on wildlife trafficking and conservation attribute continuous poaching of wildlife to a number of factors including traditional medicine and beliefs- for instance the pangolin scales, the eyes, fat and claws of lions and ivory for powder; sandal wood for cosmetics and species used for pets and ornamentals.
A thirsty elephant sips in water as hippos lurk nearby at Kazinga channel.

A series of events starting from around 2000 including intensified clampdown on poachers by the rangers of the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) added to the age-old incidents of poachers getting mauled by wildlife compounded to discourage many poachers including Tumushabe and Byaruhanga.

“I saw people being arrested, jailed and punished. Others got killed in the bush, so, I decided to quit in 2016,” Byaruhanga said.

Kihihi residents say they are grappling with many cases of missing poachers who went into the Game Park years ago and never returned.

However they concede that there are still hardcore poachers who do not see life without poaching because as put by Boaz Fred Niwazima, a community mobilizer in Kanungu district, “some do not have land to cultivate, many are uneducated, lazy and keep wondering how they would survive without poaching.”

Niwazima noted that while animals like antelopes and buffalo are mainly targeted to satisfy community’s cravings for game meat and for petty cash, big cats like the tree climbing lions are targeted when foreigners with connections to faraway traffickers such as in the Far East Asian countries come to convince the people to kill them.
Water-bucks grazing against the backdrop of dappling sun rays

In September 2022, the wildlife crimes court sentenced two poachers to 17 years imprisonment for poisoning lions in Queen Elizabeth National park while arrests of poachers for killing buffalos has been recorded.

UWA in a 2017-2023 community based wildlife crime prevention action plan, identified illegal hunting and trade of high value wildlife species, commercial hunting and trade of bush meat species and subsistence hunting for bush meat as priority offences posing a threat to the long-term health of wildlife population and wildlife based tourism.

Piggery and Apiary to the Rescue

The general consensus in Kanungu and Rubirizi now is that the rate of poaching in Queen Elizabeth national park has reduced over the years.
Olive baboons at a water point in Queen Elizabeth National park

This among others is said to be due to a livelihood support program implemented by the IUCN, Wild Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and TRAFFIC, under the conserving natural capital and enhancing collaborative management of trans-boundary resources (CONNECT) program which has since 2022 supported 120 households of former poachers in four groups in Kanungu and Rubirizi districts.

These are Kameme, Rwerere, Bwambala and Kamukiri reformed poachers’ groups.

Niwazima says that the groups received 20 sows each for piggery projects and 40 bee hives per group for apiary.

On average, they harvest 3kg of comb honey per hive which is sold at sh10,000 (USD$2.71) a kilo, translating into sh1,200,000 (USD$326.39) per group in every harvest season while some of the pigs have reproduced and the piglets have been given to individual households for multiplication.
Fred Boaz Niwanzima at the piggery project in Rwerere village Kanungu district.

“People have learnt that you can survive on raring animals and bee keeping but we are not reaping much due to lack of knowledge and processing capacity,” he said.

He added that the projects have helped the ex-poachers to pay school fees for children, meet family needs and encourage other poachers to stop hunting in the game park.

Deusdedit Twinomugisha, the UWA’s assistant warden in charge of the Southern sector of the Queen Elizabeth National Park, without delving into the specifics, reaffirmed that community poaching has indeed declined since the intervention by conservation partners to support families of people who denounced poaching with livelihood projects.

He said to reinforce those efforts, UWA stationed wildlife scouts in every village surrounding the game park and dug a trench from Ishasha to Kamameme to prevent elephants from straying into community farmlands.

He acknowledged that the livelihood support project are still being limited by inadequate knowledge in managing piggery and apiary, high costs of feeds for the pigs and lack of equipment for processing and that there is still low level human-wildlife conflict being registered, especially during rainy season when the elephants can manage to cross the trench and that there are isolated cases of attacks of domestic animals by wildlife.

He emphasized that the reformed poachers still need a push in terms of skills training and equipment support for value addition.

A more tangible plan to construct a 33km electric fence from the Democratic Republic of Congo border to protect the communities and wildlife could be actualized in the first half of this year, Twinomugisha assured.

The majority of modern businesses have sustainability concerns and goals. Net Zero is on the horizon, and it’s important to make changes to the business, supply chain, and waste production to ensure that your business is sustainable and forward-thinking. Making your business sustainable is a holistic process; there is no step-by-step process, so pick a place to start.

Efficient Network

Whether you operate an office or you have a cloud-based remote workforce, there are ways to make your network more efficient and sustainable. Legacy networks and systems are still used in some places, but they are widely considered to be inefficient compared to the latest systems.

Networks are more cloud-based nowadays, which is more efficient and cost-effective. Although a cloud-based system has some security concerns, they are considered the best option overall and the most sustainable. Find a suitable managed service provider for your business network.

Recycle and Reuse

Recycling and reusing items is one of the best ways to reduce pressure on the economy and cut carbon emissions on the path to Net Zero. There are many things that can be recycled in a business, including the office infrastructure and some of the everyday office equipment used.

Whether you are setting up an office or updating some existing infrastructure, it pays to use recycled furniture and equipment. These days, you can buy excellent secondhand office equipment secondhand that’s in excellent condition and more affordable than newer items.

Streamline Processes

If you want to make your office or business more sustainable, you need to make it more efficient. Some of the processes that can be streamlined include your distribution channels, your procurement processes, your project management, and processes that can be automated.

If you use paper in your business, you can streamline your procurement and invest in high-quality paper and envelopes that are FSC approved. Using FSC-approved paper means that the paper is sourced from certified forests that are sustainable and ethical to use.

Reduce Waste

Of course, waste is a problem for the environment, and businesses and industries are some of the biggest contributors to waste. Waste production creates Co2 in the atmosphere and creates space and pollution issues in the landfill sites. Reducing waste is important for sustainability.

There are several ways you can reduce business waste in your company. Start with your suppliers and manufacturers changing the packaging so it’s environmentally friendly. Another excellent strategy is to switch your business to a digital infrastructure reducing more waste.

Supply Chains

Supply chains are one of the issues when it comes to business sustainability. The problem is cost. It is cheaper to procure items and materials from overseas locations, meaning that more carbon is emitted in the transportation and distribution processes, but times are now changing.

While it can be cheaper to procure materials and products from overseas, it is not always the most sensible idea in the current economy. More consumers are demanding “green” products and have more information about supply chains and hold companies to account with spending.

Among many of Africa’s urgent matters, another problem seems to be worsening rapidly. The level of air pollution on the continent is a cause for concern because it is deadlier than people think. African cities are urged to implement green solutions to help curb this ‘silent killer.’

The Health Effects Institute (HEI) released a new study on Thursday, 27 October, titled The State of Air Quality and Health Impacts in Africa. The study outlines the current state of Africa’s air quality and its impact on health in Africa. It includes information from the Global Burden of Disease Project and a recent global assessment of air pollution sources.

“Pollution from fine particulate matter, household burning of solid fuels, and ozone is responsible for millions of early deaths each year and an estimated 1 in 9 deaths worldwide,” the report states. The study further adds that air pollution is the second leading risk factor for deaths in Africa. In addition, persons exposed to such pollution for extended periods risk suffering from illnesses like ischemic heart disease, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), stroke, and type 2 diabetes. Air pollution also poses significant threats to unborn babies who could, as a result, be born prematurely. In addition, young children face the possibility of lower respiratory infections, impaired cognitive development, and brain disorders such as dementia.

Ambient fine particle air pollution, also known as PM.2.5 (airborne particles measuring 2.5 µm or less in aerodynamic diameter) is the most consistent and robust predictor of deaths from cardiovascular (heart), respiratory (lung), and other diseases in studies of long-term

exposure to air pollution,” the report elaborates. This type of pollutant comes from the domestic combustion of solid fuels; use of fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas, etc.) in power generation, industry, and vehicles; semi-industrial sources (e.g., artisanal mining); agriculture, savannah, and forest fires. And open waste incineration.

Nations in Africa’s northern and western regions have added pollution from dust from the Sahara Desert. Research shows that natural occurrences of dust storms affect the levels of PM.2.5 significantly. Therefore, “Current evidence indicates that exposure to it can be a significant risk factor for allergic lung diseases such as asthma in children and adults.”

Traces of dangerous pollutants such as carbon monoxide and black carbon are found in homesteads that rely mainly on an open fire for cooking, hot water, etc. Therefore, people are often forced to use materials like coal, wood, dung, and kerosene in spaces with very little ventilation. The study names the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, Niger, Mali, Madagascar, Tanzania, Uganda, and Guinea Bissau as the ten countries that use solid fuels the most. In addition, more than 97% of the population in these countries cook with such energy.

Africa’s future in terms of urban pollution is bleak. “Most countries in Africa lack national

air quality standards,” the study states. Moreover, there is little to no progress in many regions, especially low-income regions, as they cannot afford to establish and maintain air quality monitoring stations. Statistics indicate one monitor per 0.37 million people in high-income countries compared to one monitor per 65 million people in low-income countries.

Some of the country’s actively implementing green solutions include:

• Egypt: The Greater Cairo Air Pollution Management and Climate Change Project launched in 2020 aims to modernise existing systems and reduce pollution from waste incineration.
• Ethiopia: the United Nations Environment Programme installed five ground-based quality sensors around the capital in 2019.
• South Africa: Air pollution is now a violation of constitutional rights. In 2021, South Africa implemented and formalised its dedication to the Just Transition Framework, which aims to ensure a low-carbon

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 true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members”~Mahatma Gandhi

By June 2021, four million lives had been lost to COVID-19 globally, with the death rates for those aged above 80, five times the world’s average. In Uganda, as the virus spread, apprehension grew concerning the impact that it would have on older persons. The government, consequently, classified older persons as being at high risk of COVID 19, though it is ironic that the first batch of vaccination saw many older persons left out.

Older persons, by the United Nations standards, are individuals aged 60 years and above and the 2019 Uganda Bureau of Statistics report states that they constitute 4.2% of the population, approximately, 1,482,600 persons. Thus, they form a significant fraction of Uganda’s demographic profile.

Prior to the pandemic, older persons already faced a plethora of health challenges which now risked being exacerbated by exposure to COVID-19 and heightening the likelihood of death. Commonly; high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, stroke, ulcers, poor eyesight, weakened dental, cancers, hemorrhoids, HIV/AIDS, and malnutrition.

Polypharmacy, the silent killer where multiple medical prescriptions are given to an older person at the same time, leading to unexpected death is rampant. Relatedly, specialists advise that the number of dosages given to older persons should be half of what they used to take while younger, yet health workers not specialized in the care of older persons do not seem to know this. Unfortunately, this is aggravated by the inadequate number of gerontologists and geriatrics in the country who specialize in the study and care of older persons.

Mental health challenges such as depression and loneliness are also common, majorly as a result of being widowed, sudden unemployment, abuse, and ill-treatment. Reports of family and community members grabbing land and other assets from older persons are becoming rife.

Starvation for fear of constipation from eating hard food and embarrassment from caretakers having to clean up waste is also rampant with some older persons. This is aggravated by mobility challenges in accessing latrines/toilets.

Similarly, emergency food and nutrition programs of NGOs rarely adjust to the needs of older persons, who may find hard grains inedible because of dental and digestion problems. Instead, emphasis is on programs for children, persons with disabilities, and expectant women.

The costs of traveling to the health facilities at the sub-district or urban centers, long patient queues, and inadequate supply of medicines worsen the situation, especially for those with HIV/AIDS and in need of anti-retroviral drugs.

The national minimum health care package hardly includes medicines for diseases common in old age. Resultantly, painkillers are resorted to, risking addiction and abuse of already fragile health.

Care homes for older persons are also very few yet lacking government support for their initiatives. For example, the average cost in a care home that provides holistic medication, accommodation, and feeding for an older person is UGX. 100,000. This is quite high, compared to the monthly UGX. 25. 000 that some older persons get under the SAGE grant.

Equally, insurance schemes tend to charge high premiums for older persons, making medical cover inaccessible for many.

The Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, 1995 together with the 2002 and 2003 Madrid International and African Union Plans of Action on aging underscore the need for the State to make provisions for the maintenance and welfare of older persons, which includes access to health/medicine.

Older persons are just a small fraction of the population; if they are to live in dignity, then appropriate and accessible health care, both physically and financially ought to be made available, even after the COVID-19 pandemic is contained. This also calls for a comprehensive legal framework on older persons, which Uganda still lacks.

The newly sworn-in members of Parliament for older persons surely have their work cut out and ought to hit the ground running.

The Writer, Achak Carol Kay Human rights lawyer, and EAEPIAP Fellow with Center for Strategic Litigation

Email: kay.achak@gmail.com

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.