March 16th 2020, Luzira: Uganda Breweries Limited has today handed over a 330 Million contribution to the Ministry of Water and Environment towards the 2021 National Tree Planting Campaign; ROOTs (Running Out of Trees). This money is to go towards national mobilization of public and private sectors to plant 40 Million Trees Countrywide by May 17th, a day that has been gazette as the National Tree Planting Day.
Speaking at the Cheque Handover Ceremony, Juliana Kagwa, the Corporate Relations Director of Uganda Breweries Limited acknowledged that it is good business for Corporate and Private companies to rise to the challenge of tackling the environmental crisis before us today.
“If the forest cover is depleting at the rate of 122,000 hectares per year, and Uganda has 4.9m hectares, if we do nothing, in 40 short years, Uganda will be left bare. We must therefore put in motion the process and tools necessary to ensure that this beautiful, green country of ours continues to sustain our livelihoods as we pledge to sustain its survival.” she said
The Running out of Trees (ROOTs) campaign is an initiative between, the Ministry of Water and Environment in collaboration with private sector players whose main objective is to work together to fast track National Forest Restoration Goals and Commitments which includes a plan to restore 2.5 Million hectares of degraded landscapes by 2030.
The Permanent Secretary, Minister for Water and Environment Alfred Okot Okidi reiterated the need for private companies to join public and government projects that have national reach and impact instead of leaving the burden to Government alone.
This cheque of 330 Million is a good boost to our fundraising campaign that will see us physically visit many other corporate companies to join this initiative. The task before us is a great one, planting 40 million trees is no mean feat. We know that these are challenging times for business, but I would like to call upon other corporate companies to dig deep into their pockets and rise to the occasion to make this edition of Running out of Trees a success.
The 2021 Edition of the Run will in observance of the COVID19 Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) hold a short 10Km Run on March 21, 2021 (International Day of Forests), starting from Parliament through Nakasero and Kololo - The event will host participants not exceeding 200 people drawn from Heads of Corporate Companies, Diplomatic Missions, Government and Cultural Institutions.
To involve the public and attract mass participation, we shall this year launch a ROOTs mobile app to raise awareness and mobilize funds needed to procure, plant and maintain the 40million trees across the country. Members of the public will be asked to contribute only 1,500 via the Mobile Phone App.
This cost caters for seedling, the the planting exercise, manning the tree until it is at a stage where it can survive on its own and for paying TREE ADOPTION the company that is responsible for continuous monitoring and evaluation of this process.
The 2021 Running out of Trees campaign will be a 5-year project seeking to plant over 200 million trees in that period. Uganda Breweries Limited, among others, shall be leading an effort to plant 40 million trees in 8 hours every year on National Tree Planting Day. This is the second year running that Uganda Breweries is spearheading this partnership with the Ministry of Water and Environment.
Uganda Breweries Limited has also over the years contributed to other Tree Planting Initiatives and has so far, planted over 300 hectares of trees in Navugulu central forest reserve, Gangu forest reserve & Nawandigi Forest Reserve at the corporate level and staff led initiatives that have seen massive tree planting in Kamokoli community in Eastern Uganda and Nabitoli Catholic Parish, Budaka in Wakiso with different partnerships like NFA and Rotary Club.
