Uganda’s environment and natural resources: enhancing parliament’s oversight

Uganda&rsquo;s natural resource base is one of the richest and most diverse in Africa, resulting in the country&rsquo;s economy relying heavily on goods and services so provided. The purpose of this handbook is to provide a ready source of environmental information and trends for legislators, to foster effective appreciation and representation of environmental issues in parliament.<br /> <br />The book covers several sectors and areas of interests, including agriculture, climate change, energy, fisheries, forests, land oil and gas, pollution, tourism, water wetlands and wildlife/biodiversity. Concerning agriculture and climate changes, the document recommends Ugandan legislators to consider the following action-points: prioritisation of agriculture in national planning, decision making processes and budget allocations greater and more modern investment in the agricultural sector improved access to markets, especially external markets, for food and cash crops and the livestock sectors a weather and climate policy is required to guide a national response to climate change immediate action is required to address how climate change in Uganda is contributing to unreliable and declining agricultural production National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) requires greater funding and mainstreaming into key economic sectors such as agriculture <br />The authors suggest the following action-points to be considered in terms of pollution and biodiversity: strengthen the policy framework for managing air, water and land pollution by creating standards and the ability of government agencies to competently enforce them develop alternative and affordable sources of energy such as solar, small-scale hydropower, geothermal and others ensure greater protection to wetlands that provide natural treatment of wastewater entering Lake Victoria and other important water bodies encourage and enforce investment in recycling plants for polythene, glass and biodegradable waste oil companies should be compelled to develop biodiversity action plans to protect and restore biodiversity <br />