Promoting Nomination of Important Natural Sites for Designation as sites for Sustainable Governance and Climate Change Adaptation in Uganda

Abstract

Uganda is richly endowed with a variety of unique natural systems in form of environmental, geological, pastoral and agro-ecological resources that have not been or least documented in terms of their value in research and sustainable development. In line with UNESCOs flagship programme under priority Africa on fostering science for sustainable management and disaster risk reduction and in fulfillment of Uganda’s Constitutional provisions on the environment and natural resources management elaborated in the Vision 2040 and the various sectoral laws, the Uganda National Commission for UNESCO (UNATCOM) carried out a mapping and documentation on some of the known important natural sites of outstanding value with view to recommending them to UNESCO for designation under International protection. The overall objective of the project was to promote knowledge Of communities and government officials on scientifically important sites with view to nominating such sites for designation as sites for sustainable livelihoods and Climate Change adaptation in Uganda. A variety of approaches were employed including interviews, questionnaire survey, observations, mapping and document review for both qualitative and quantitative data. The tools used included Global Positioning system (GPS) equipment, field maps, photographic cameras and land use cover descriptions. The targeted sites were visited to obtain important information and the responses from the stakeholders and site management plans were synthesized. Two categories of sites namely biospheres reserves and geoparks were considered. The implementation followed UNESCO’s guidelines on Biosphere Reserves and Geoparks. In all, forty natural sites were mapped and assessed. Twenty one of natural sites were Central Forest Reserves fit for biosphere reserves or of dual ecological significance.Nineteen sites were exclusively geological. Twenty two of the forty ecosystems showed good potential for nomination as Biosphere Reserves while the nineteen geosites were recommended for grouping into three or four to form independent Geoparks. In regard to the global commitment, the project has laid a good foundation for the country to contribute to the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals especially SDG15 on the protection of ecosystems and biodiversity, SDG 13.1 on climate change resilience, SDG 11.4 on the protection of cultural and natural heritage and SDG 4.7 on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Global Citizenship education.

Given that most of the geological landforms are not under any protection, it was recommended that these sites be urgently placed under regulation. For the prioritized sites with management plans and under protection, some of the plans need review to incorporate UNESCO’s requirements for Biosphere Reserves and Geoparks. The site without management plans to formulate plans and under This calls for commitment by the communities for strong partnerships with long-term public and political support, and the development of a comprehensive strategy that will meet all the requirements. The National Committees of Man and Biosphere (MAB) and the Geosciences programme need to lead the nomination and management