The speaker of Parliament of Uganda Rebecca Kadaga has officially launched the World Wide Fund's 'Earth Hour 2014' environmental campaign which will see the international institution plant one million trees across the country this year. The Fund's campaign aims at fighting the adverse effects emanating from environmental degradation which is high in the country.

 

"This campaign will address the effects of climate change," said WWF's Uganda country director David Duli at the campaign launch in Kampala on Jan. 17. He added that the Fund is aware of the high rate of environmental degradation and that this requires the efforts of all Ugandans to combat it.

 

"If you plant a tree please go ahead and look after it and ensure it grows," he said.

 

Duli urged the public to go for alternative technologies that do not emit a lot of gases into the atmosphere, which he said could be adopted at household and industrial level to address issues to do with climate change.

 

Kadaga urged corporate companies and other institutions to join the campaign and save the environment.

 

"This country is chocking with mobile telephone lines," she said, urging the companies to have a budget for investing in environmental related programs.

 

"I am seriously worried about the rate at which the environment is being degraded," she said, we have no choice but to find solutions to fight it, she added.

 

Data from the National Forest Authority (NFA) indicates that more than 73,000 hectares of private forest are cleared every year across the country and over 7,000ha of protected forest reserves are destroyed annually for timber and charcoal.