The United Nations General Assembly declared 2011 as the International Year of Forests to raise awareness on sustainable management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests (http://www.un.org/en/events/iyof2011/).
Forests and sustainable forest management contribute significantly to adverse climate change, sustainable development, poverty eradication and the achievement of internationally agreed development goals. The need for sustainable management of all types of forest, including the fragile forest ecosystems should be emphasized.
Concerted efforts should focus on raising awareness at all levels to strengthen the sustainable management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests for the benefit of current and future generations.
In Uganda we as tour operators should take the lead in sensitizing the whole tourist community, the civil society and the government bodies about the threat of rampant deforestation. This is a serious threat for the future of tourism in the country, where the main tourism products are forest based, like the primate trekking and the mountain gorilla trekking. Particularly, Bwindi forest is at risk if interventions of requalification will not take place in the near future, which will support the compromised gorilla habitat as well as the local communities from revamping tourist products with real benefits than the actual gorilla permits.
See this photo from Bwindi forest at Engagi Lodge.
See more information about forests in Uganda and deforestation in our website:
No comments:
Post a Comment