Why do we do this?

A message from the organizer

Timbers confiscated from illegal timber dealer in Mabira Forest Reserve, October  2013

Why are we holding this choir competition?

Children taking firewood for cooking, Mpanga 2013

The reason why we are doing this is to increase awareness of the importance of conserving Ugandan natural forests among young generations. We think that by practicing the assigned piece, which is about forest conservation, students would become more aware of the roles of natural forest and understand the value to live in harmony with nature.  

People see forests as consumptive resources rather than important asset to conserve. During the past 15 years, the land coverage of natural forest in Uganda has been decreasing from 20.4% to 14.8%. This is due to the continuous encroachment by local communities and illegal timber dealers.

Fire woods and charcoals were used
to cook Matoke, Ugandan popular food. 

 In terms of Charcoal and firewood, the data of 2001 showed 97% of households depended on firewood and charcoal. It was more than 10 years ago, however the majority of people continuously depend on them because it includes cultural backgrounds such as traditional cooking styles.

From the conservation aspect, we have also been facing many challenges. National Forestry Authority is protecting 506 Ugandan forest reserves with limited numbers of staffs. Since our budget is also very limited, due to the shortage of fuel, our patrolmen sometimes patrol our large forest reserve by a bicycle or on foot. Despite the tremendous efforts, we are struggling with the encroachment on large scales. In fact, encroachers sometimes become violent such as putting fire on our properties or even kill our staffs.

The situations are not simple because it involves various background, however, we believe that we could the important roles of our forests to future generation so that those students would be responsible for their natural environment. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to provide environmental education for students by holding a choir contests which students sing a song about forest conservation. The song describes the importance of having natural forest. Since students are going to practice the song repeatedly to win the choir contest, they are expected to remember the lyric and become aware of nature conservation through the whole process of this activity.

Written by Kanako Tanaka

JICA ecotourism volunteer, National Forestry Authority ecotourism unit