Conserving Nature is effective and sustainable only if development happens in a way that does not damage the ecosystem. As human population continues to grow at a worrying high rate, there is increasing competition for land for agriculture, towns, industries and settlement, wood for fuel/timber, water for industrial, farm and home use. Uganda is already experiencing major policy and law reforms as human and ecosystems are threatened by environmental degradation. Uganda has some of the best environmental legislations and policies, however, there is a worrying gap between the environmental commitments made and the actual implementation to improve environmental outcomes.
At Care for Nature, we are bridging the information and exchange gap between the population and environmental policy formulation, implementation and natural resource management. We are facilitating decision-making process on ecosystem issues, and represent the interests of citizens and communities in environment and sustainable development discussions, debates and media. We use a nonpartisan advocacy approach to keep conservation issues on the national priority agenda. We enhance public knowledge of nature’s values to create a public push for political leaders to take decisions that support sustainable natural resources management. To influence favorable environmental legislation, we conduct a series of open policy dialogue forums between local communities, and host regular briefings with Ugandan parliamentarians and local council authorities on a wide range of environmental topics to build political will in order to improve environmental governance and coordinate interactions between policymakers, environmental experts and the private sector.