EU gives Shs 25 billion for sustainable forest management

By Tom Angurini

The European Union has given the ministry of water and environment a Shs 25bn grant for the second phase of the Saw Log Production Grant Scheme (SPGS) for sustainable forest management and charcoal value chain.

This is after their recently concluded 5-year project showed that 47,000 hectares of forest cover had been restored by both commercial and community planters.

This was revealed by Caroline Adriansen, the European Union delegation’s head of cooperation while speaking at a meeting about forest management and sustainable charcoal value chain.

She says promoting commercial forestry plantations will in turn put pressure off natural forests that are the only sources of forest products and services in the country.

Adriansen noted that this project is an opportunity to regulate and improve efficiency of biomass fuel production in the short-term and more importantly facilitate use of cleaner and renewable sources of energy.

She calls for good governance in the sustainability of all natural capital by putting in place tougher regulatory measures driven towards stopping deforestation and forest degradation.

Written by Noelyn Nassuuna