Napak School concerned over deforestation rate

___________________

Administrators of Napak Seed Senior Secondary School are concerned over the thousands of trees being lost daily to schools for firewood.

Being the primary source of energy for educational institutions, firewood is consistently provided to schools throughout the term by the locals in exchange for cash.

“When I consider the number of people coming through with firewood and the size of our trees, we could be losing at least ten trees to ten individuals on a daily,” said the Green Schools coordinator Emmanuel Owoyesiga.

He explained that due to the strong winds in Karamoja and their unsheltered kitchens, the region has registered an increased demand for wood fuel from schools.

The great number of depleted trees has left the Green Schools Project participants so touched according to Owoyesiga.

“If we can have an energy-saving stove we can have a way of impacting the community by reducing the use of firewood hence reducing deforestation,” Owoyesiga said. Adding that by doing so, they shall have solved the problem of the harsh climate.

Owoyesiga raised the concern following the recent rise in temperatures that don’t facilitate the sustainability of humanity and was left pondering over what could be occurring in areas where these trees are being extracted from.

He noted that by reducing deforestation in the area, they shall have opened the door for positive climate change.

Napak Seed SS is one of the beneficiaries of the Green Schools project which New Vision is implementing in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) with financing from the Swedish Embassy. It aims at sensitising the public on climate change and mitigation.

As a Green Schools coordinator, Owoyesiga and his team have called upon the community to emulate the school by enforcing tree-planting projects.

“As Seed Senior Secondary School, we have planted 900 trees during the first phase of Green Schools in 2023 and 421 were able to survive,” he said.

In the year 2024, we intend to plant 40,000 trees as a way to contribute to climate change and meet the increased demand for wood fuel.