On the southern outskirts of Kampala, the capital of Uganda, lies the suburb of Makindye in the county of Kyadondo.

Once upon a time, this whole area was covered in dense, lush, indigenous tropical forest, so my parents said, as they narrated stories of how they were told by elderly Baganda friends that buffalos, leopards, dik-diks and pythons were once found here.

But now, almost every other day I hear the sound of axe upon wood or the incessant buzz of chainsaws felling what is left of ancient indigenous trees, like Mvule (Milicia excelsa), East African Mahogany (Khaya anthotheca), and Muwafu (Canarium schweinfurthii) also known as the African incense tree – to name but a few, and all of which are endangered.

Looking out from the veranda of our home, I watch as plumes of smoke rise from the various hills and valleys of Kizungu, Luwafu and Water Pump – some of Makindye’s parishes/zones – and lament the once verdant, shrinking glades where slash-and-burn are the order of the day due to population increase, agriculture, and the harvesting of firewood for brick-making. As the glades retreat a little further each day, Makindye’s landscape is denuded of its beauty. As a result, its cool, clean and inviting micro-climate changes, leaving it drier and warmer, disturbing the rainfall patterns and the quality of air for its residents.

AUTHORITIES

I have, on numerous occasions contacted the relevant environmental officers from Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), Makindye Division, and the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) who are both mandated by law (eg. National Environment Act 1995; National Forestry and Tree Planting Act 2003; Plant Protection and Health Act 2015, etc), asking them to stop the wanton destruction taking place here, but with little or no luck whatsoever. The deforestation just continues apace because the perpetrators know that they will not be caught, let alone prosecuted.

The one time I did manage to reach a KCCA environmental officer in Makindye (they seldom answer their phones), to inform him that trees were being felled in this area, it was too late and a tree, which looked to be several hundred years old, had already been felled. The people who cut these trees down do so with impunity and, I am told, often act in connivance with the local councillors (LCs), who are believed to be implicated in the illegal logging and frequently profit handsomely from the sale of the decades and centuries-old, rare hardwoods in this tiny biodiverse area.

Most recently, I went to KCCA Makindye division and reported the chopping down of trees that are used to feed a nearby brick-making kiln, showed photographs of the kiln which was burning at all hours of the day and night, as well as a lorry ferrying away piles of bricks but, yet again, nothing has been done. When I followed up the matter, I was informed that KCCA have only one vehicle to patrol the Makindye division and that they are short- staffed in terms of environmental and enforcement officers. As for NEMA, they seemed indifferent.

Uganda is a co-signatory to several environmental agreements such as the UN Millennium Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the 2016 Paris Climate Accord, amongst others. Goal number 15 of the SDGs exhorts signatories to, “Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss”.

AGREEMENTS

If the Ugandan government is serious about its commitment to the aforementioned agreements, then it needs to ensure rigorous countrywide enforcement of the environmental laws that already exist on the statute books. KCCA also needs to employ more officers and vehicles to patrol their areas of responsibility and stop the ongoing degradation of the environment and the knock-on effect to the local wildlife.

Despite the aforementioned destruction, we count ourselves fortunate for the time being, as our garden seems to be one of the few remaining sanctuaries in the immediate area for black-and-white-casqued hornbills (Bycanistes subcylindricus), Ross’s turacos (Musophaga rossae), woodland kingfishers (Halcyon senegalensis) and many other birds, as well as several species of small animals and reptiles. I wonder how much longer my neighbours and I will continue to have the pleasure of seeing these extraordinarily beautiful creatures at such close quarters, as their habitat is disappearing and they are confined to minute areas to live, forage, hunt and breed. 

Global warming and climate change are real: the science bears this out. They are no hoax as some maintain, and we do not have the luxury of time for aimless philosophical or semantic debate. Both of these phenomena present a huge existential threat to Uganda’s prosperity, and humanity in general.

As the late Professor Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan environmental and political activist, founder of The Green Belt Movement, and the first African woman Nobel Laureate for Peace noted, Africa will be hardest hit by deforestation and climate change.

Furthermore, many young people around the world, like the indigenous Canadian water activist, Autumn Peltier, and the Swedish climate change activist, Greta Thunberg, are speaking out and saying what countless indigenous peoples in various parts of the world have known for generations, and unequivocally spoken out about for decades, regarding what we are doing to our world.

All of us have a duty of care to act and stop what is happening in our own districts and cities; otherwise, this country will become a desert. We do not live in hermetically sealed bubbles; we are all connected to one another, as what happens in Uganda affects people around the world and vice-versa.

Over the years, many people across Uganda will have noticed, for example, how erratic our weather patterns have become, which has affected the planting and harvesting seasons; how the frequency of deadly landslides and floods are on the increase in the east of the country; and how droughts in the west and north of Uganda are decimating herds and crops, resulting in famine, the displacement of populations, poverty and extreme hardship.

What is being done to our glades (and the wildlife that relies on them) in Makindye is replicated daily throughout Kampala and the rest of Uganda as laws to conserve and protect the environment are routinely flouted.

It is, therefore, crucial to maintain what trees we have left in Kampala and throughout Uganda, since apart from helping to regulate weather patterns and water-cycles, prevent soil erosion, and alleviate the effects of climate change, trees also help to mitigate the noxious effects of pollution by cleaning the air we breathe. They do so through absorbing and storing, via their leaves and bark, various pollutants emitted from the aforementioned kilns, the burning of rubbish, as well as exhaust fumes from Uganda’s millions of second- or third-hand reconditioned and poorly maintained vehicles.

Green spaces and landscapes, especially those with numerous trees, shrubs and flowers, reduce our heart rates and blood pressure and alleviate anxiety and depression. More and more scientific studies are making the correlation between green environments and good health. It is not too late for all of us to arrest the damage being done to our glades, forests, woods and our environment and to our own mental and physical well-being. We owe it to ourselves and the generations that follow us to preserve our trees and green spaces.

The author is a freelance art historian, researcher and writer.