WWF to Prepare Cabinet Paper on New Deal for Nature and People

Posted on 4 August 2020

Last week, WWF in Uganda team led by the Country Director, David Duli, held a meeting with the Minister of Water and Environment, Hon Sam Cheptoris to seek for political endorsement and support for the New Deal for Nature and people.

During the meeting, David cited the alarming rates of nature destruction and called for an immediate action to reverse the trend.

“Forest cover in the country has declined from 24% of total land area in 1990 to 11.8% in 2015. We have also registered a decline in wetlands and a lot of natural habitats lost to agriculture”, he said adding that the country is estimated to have lost about 55% of its biodiversity value due to hunting and loss of forest, savannah, and wetland habitat to agriculture.

The Minister, in agreement with David stated that the Forest cover loss in Uganda was among the highest around the world.

“The problem is really big and is being escalated by the rapid population growth. We therefore need to sit down and come up with concrete solutions to reverse this trend nationally but also at the global level”, he said.

The WWF team among others proposed that the Ministry gets the president on board to mobilize other Heads of State to make use of the upcoming global platforms such as the United Nations General Assembly and the CBD to make resolutions aimed at reversing nature loss.

As an Action from the meeting, the Minister Directed the WWF team to work with the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) to come up with an Issues/cabinet paper which the Minister will present to cabinet. Cabinet is chaired by the Head of State.
“It is important that we bring all Ministries on board since we know that nature undermines our economy, health and general wellbeing”, he elaborated.

WWF is now working around the clock together with the CBD co-chair to have the document ready and presented to cabinet in the next three weeks.

We look forward to the political endorsement and support for the NewDeal.

WWF staff led by the Country Director, David Duli meeting with Minister Sam Cheptoris in his office