Climate Change: NRM Youth cadres in massive tree planting campaign

By Andrew Cohen Amvesi 

KOBOKO. The National Resistance Movement (NRM) youth cadres under their umbrella organization dubbed the NRM Youth Cadres Association Uganda (NYCA) have embarked on a nationwide tree planting campaign to combat the devastating effects of climate change.

The campaign, according to the cadres, will help to conserve the environment and also generate income for the people of Uganda.

While in Koboko district on Wednesday May 22, 2024, the NYCA team launched the tree planting campaign for the West Nile sub-region by planting indigenous and fruit trees at the district headquarters and various secondary schools.

“Today we are undertaking a project of one million tree planting campaigns in Koboko, West Nile sub-region and this project seeks to liberate Ugandans from poor climate. First of all, we are looking at planting trees that will absorb carbon dioxide and make sure that oxygen can be in plenty. Two, we are planting trees that are going to bring rain, we are planting trees that are going to act as food security and also generate income for people,” Emmanuel Nahamya, the NYCA vice chairperson said.

He stressed that as NYCA, they are planting both indigenous and fruit trees to conserve the environment and also generate income for people.

“We have launched the tree planting campaign in West Nile at Koboko district headquarters, we thereafter went to Millennium College Koboko in Keri Town Council from there, we went to Kochi Secondary school and later to Nyarilo Secondary school in Koboko Municipality where we were involving the students in tree planting and left them with free seedlings to continue planting more trees,” Nahamya said.

“So, we are calling upon all Ugandans to come and join this campaign because this campaign is meant to encourage people to plant more trees so that we can prevent ourselves from heat wave and also protect the environment from the diverse effects of climate change,” Nahamya added.

Nahamya also used the opportunity to welcome Godfrey Angulu, a NUP diehard to the NRM party. Angulu later joined the NYCA team and the district leadership in the tree planting exercise.

During the occasion, Jackson Banduni, the NYCA coordinator for the West Nile sub-region said climate change is real as witnessed by the floods in Kasese, Bududa and the recent heat wave in South Sudan and some parts of Northern Uganda.

“For that reason, tree planting is the solution. Combating the effects of climate change is a public good but ignoring it is a public mess. Therefore, as patriots, as cadres, we should wake up and see that we are visionary enough to see that we curb the effects of climate change. This is not a sectarian or partisan campaign because when the floods and drought come, and there is hunger, it will not only affect the NRM party members and that is why we are encouraging other party supporters to join us in this exercise,” Banduni, also the Northern Youth MP aspirant said.

Stephen Asiki, the Koboko district NRM youth council chairman, expressed gratitude to NYCA officials for bringing the tree planting campaign to the district.

“We are now going to work together with NYCA to ensure that we plant more trees in Koboko to protect the environment from depletion,” Asiki promised.

Gilbert Ojia, the Koboko district forest officer said he is very glad to see the youth who are the majority in this country, taking up the lead to combat climate change.

“I also want to appreciate the effort of our government in environmental protection through the various ways, one of them is the tree planting campaign which the NRM youth are launching and is going to spread over to different institutions in our district. If you look at the timeline, perhaps when most of the youth were not there, looking at the vegetation cover, the environment itself, and you compare it with what we are going through right now, there is a very big difference because many tree species have gone extinct,” Ojia said.

Ojia advised the NYCA team not to stop with the tree planting campaign at institutional level but extend it to the household level where individuals should be encouraged to plant trees.

While representing the Resident District Commissioner (RDC), Lucy Afako, the Koboko district NRM Chairperson commended the NRM youths for the great program which she said will live to plant a seed in the heart of fellow youths when it comes to conserving the environment.

She pledged total support on behalf of the district leadership in ensuring that the tree planting campaign is embraced and rolled out to the different parts of the district and beyond.