Low-cost housing and energy-efficient stoves in restoring Uganda’s forest cover

 

South Sudan refugees at a camp in Adjumani in northern Uganda. Dwindling funding and an ever increasing number of refugees are pushing countries like Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia into taking loans. PHOTO | AFP 

By DICTA ASIIMWE

In Summary

• With over 580,000 refugees from the Great Lakes Region, Uganda’s forests have been under pressure, as people cut down trees for fuel for cooking and clear land for agriculture, the main economic activity in the country.
• Now refugee agencies are pushing for construction of low-cost semi-permanent brick houses, fuel efficient stoves and reforestation efforts around refugee camps.
• The dwindling forest cover has UNHCR rethinking its dependence on trees for constructing shelter. In the Kyaka camp, where 22,000 refugees live, UNHCR has provided money for the construction of low-cost brick housing units. Each comprising two bedrooms, a kitchen and a toilet and costs $800.

As refugee numbers continue to rise, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and its partners are now working to prevent deforestation around their settlements in Uganda.

With over 580,000 refugees from the Great Lakes Region, Uganda’s forests have been under pressure, as people cut down trees for fuel for cooking and clear land for agriculture, the main economic activity in the country.

Now refugee agencies are pushing for construction of low-cost semi-permanent brick houses, fuel efficient stoves and reforestation efforts around refugee camps.

In the Kyangwali refugee settlement forest, for example, refugees have formed groups and grown 108 hectares of teak, pine, fruit and eucalyptus trees, as their contribution to Uganda’s pledge to restore up to 2.5 million hectares of its degraded and deforested landscapes by 2030.

Action Africa Help International (AAHI) gives the refugees seedlings and a monthly stipend of Ush95,000 ($27.8) as an incentive to plant trees. AAHI is also training other groups to make briquettes for sale, as a way to increase the income of refugees. The briquettes are made from dried maize stalks, and any other household rubbish that can burn, reducing the need to cut down trees for charcoal.

About 37 per cent of the 10,039 households in Kyangwali have received energy efficient stoves, which also reduce the amount of energy needed for cooking.

In Hoima district, where Kyangwai is located, firewood is the main source of fuel for cooking. This has sharply increased deforestation, with Bugoma central forest reserve losing most of its tree cover.

Firewood

“Without trees to cut down, women and children are now moving about 17 kilometres in search of firewood,” says AAHI’s Jackie Kitentera.

According to Minister for Disaster Preparedness and Relief Hillary Onek, dwindling forest cover is a problem across all refugee settlements and camps in Uganda.

The dwindling forest cover has UNHCR rethinking its dependence on trees for constructing shelter. In the Kyaka camp, where 22,000 refugees live, UNHCR has provided money for the construction of low-cost brick housing units. Each comprising two bedrooms, a kitchen and a toilet and costs $800.

These environmental conservation activities are likely to help UNHCR and its partners avoid a situation like the one in Tanzania, where the government has banned use of wooden poles in erecting shelters and urged use of fuel efficient stoves to tame deforestation

It is unclear whether these initiatives to reduce deforestation among refugee-hosting communities will be sustained, as UNHCR and its partners are struggling for money —the UNHCR is receiving just enough funding to cater for urgent needs like food and healthcare.

In the meantime, countries like Uganda are facing massive deforestation. Uganda’s National Forest Authority says that the country has been losing 92,000 hectares of forests annually. The total forest cover declined from 54 per cent of the total land area in 1900 to 24 per cent in 1990. This figure fell further to 15 per cent in 2005 and 11 per cent in 2015.