By Ezaruku Draku Franklin

A new report released by Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE) an independent public policy research and advocacy think tank has painted a grim picture of post Covid-19 recovery plan, noting that only 28 percent of the national budget caters for natural capital sustainable recovery plan.

According to the report, the assessment of the financial year 2021/22 national budget revealed that only $3.36 billion (Shs11.9 trillion) representing 28 percent is responsive, both positive and negative to sustainable natural capital management. This, according to the report represents a significant decline from the USD 4.8Bn percent compliance score noted under the FY 2020/21 budget assessment.

 The report says the 28 percent natural capital responsiveness entails budgetary interventions that have both positive and negative implications on natural capital. The remaining 72 percent of the budget was deemed neutral with no implication on natural capital since Recurrent Expenditure alone (wages, statutory interest payments, and non-wage) took 58.7 percent of the total budget.

Results of the disaggregation of the 28 percent (USD 3.36Bn) natural capital responsive budgetary interventions, according to the report highlighted that; 60.8 percent (USD 2.042Bn) of the natural capital responsive budgetary interventions were found to be strongly positive, 26 percent (USD 873.6M)) were weak positive, 13 percent (USD 436.8M) were strong negative while none turned out to be weak negative.

“Notably, a decline in the percentage of natural capital responsive budgetary interventions between the two budgets for financial years 2020/21 and 2021/22 was observed having dipped from 40 percent in 2020/21 to 28 percent in 2021/22. This decline is attributed to both the decline in the allocation to the Natural Resources, Environment, Climate Change, Water and Land Management Programme which dipped from 3.7 percent (USD 444M) in FY 2020/21 budget to a paltry 2 percent (USD 240M) in the FY 2021/2211,” the report says.

The report also says in its current state, the budget is inclined to industrialization and petroleum development and that there are no resources allocated to procurement of adequate equipment for effective monitoring of oil and gas activities for environmental compliance, making it more deleterious to natural capital.

“Relatedly, electronic waste is an emerging strain of waste that is growing exponentially due to the increasing use of electronic gadgets such as phones and computers. Disposal of electronic waste is prohibited at all landfills with a collection and disposal challenge thus breeding grounds for illegal dumping in wetlands and drainage channels in response to absence of a designated dumping site,” the report says.

The report says the current state of Uganda’s natural capital including forests, wetlands, fisheries, pangolins and birds is worrying due to indiscriminate loss triggered by population pressure, income, poverty, agriculture expansion, industrialization, sporadic urbanization and low budgetary allocations.

For instance, the report says forest coverage declined from 24 percent in 1990 to 12 percent by 2020 while wetlands coverage plummeted from 15.5 percent to 8.9 percent over the same period. At the same time, the report says only 34.4 percent and 20.6 percent of forest and wetland area respectively was under management plans as of June 2020.

“This gloomy state extended to water bodies which have become seasonal with some rivers totally drying up due to massive encroachment on catchment areas. A case in point is Lake Wamala in Mubende whose size has significantly reduced and the highly degraded River Rwizi in Mbarara. The degradation of wetlands has had economic implications such as the decline in water quality accompanied by higher costs of water treatment by the National Water and Sewerage Corporation, and partial functionality of small hydro power projects such as Nyagak located along rivers that have become seasonal due to degradation,” the report says.

It says in light of the above state, urgent intervention is more of a must than an alternative to arrest the indiscriminate degradation of natural capital at rates that undermine its natural replenishment ability.

“With COVID-19 in the picture, all government efforts have been shifted to saving lives and resuscitating the economy. This poses a risk of relegating natural capital protection further in terms of budgetary prioritization if no deliberate effort is undertaken to ensure that natural capital is effectively integrated in the COVID-19 stimuli and recovery packages.

According to the report, current efforts to manage this waste are being thwarted by lack of prioritization by the budget and that effective management of COVID-19 related waste such as single use disposable masks and spike in plastic waste driven by sanitizer bottles is conspicuously missing in the COVID-19 Recovery budget.

The report says Uganda’s industrialization is not only based on natural resources but also inclined to agro-based products which account for over 40 percent of the exports and that industrialization directly and indirectly affects natural capital through resource extraction, scarring of landscapes, noise and air pollution, and biodiversity loss through discharge of untreated waste in highly biodiverse ecosystems such as wetlands, lakes and rivers.

“It is therefore unfortunate and ironic that a budget themed on an industrialization agenda that directly and indirectly implicates natural capital is silent on natural capital management and conservation with a paltry allocation of only 2 percent to the Natural Resources, Environment, Climate Change, Water and Land Management Programme,” it says.

While launching the report yesterday, Collins Oloya, the Director of Environment affairs at the Ministry of Water and Environment like the rest of the world, Uganda has not been spared by the trail of damage wrecked by COVID-19, with mixed implications on the economy, society and the planet which is the natural capital.

The 2019/2020 Uganda National Household Survey, released in May 2021, revealed that Covid-19 drove an additional two million Ugandans into poverty, shrank employment by 10 percent from 57 percent before Covid-19 to 47% during Covid-19, and increased the proportion of the population engaged in subsistence agriculture from 41 percent to 52 percent before and during COVID-19 respectively.

The UN Environment Programme Report on Green Approaches to Covid-19 Recovery 2021 urges that, for effective long term economic recovery, consideration of all dimensions of sustainable development, including the environmental pillar must be prioritized.

Oloya however said the key for transition to green economy is the realization that natural capital degradation and biodiversity loss are pressing socio-economic and environmental concerns but remain outside the mainstream economic decision making.

“The most high profile economic decision making currently relates to Covid-19 pandemic and it is vital that polices that promote sustainable investment in natural capital are integrated into the post Covid-19 economic recovery plans. Relatedly, the 2021/22 national budget (amounting to USD 12.1B) registered a decline in terms of natural capital responsive interventions estimated at 28 percent (USD 3.36Bn), far below the 40 percent (USD 4.8Bn) registered by the financial year 2020/21 budget.

Professor Winstons Muhwezi, the Director of Research at ACODE said the fact that Uganda’s economy is so much dependent on natural capital means that more resources should have been allocated to the sustainable development. He said focus must be on  assessing the positive methods to integrate the natural capital including the budgetary, fiscal, monetary and trade policies such expenditure policies that support afforestation as opposed to negative budgetary, fiscal, monetary and trade policies which undermine natural capital for example monetary and fiscal trade incentives for clearance of forests.

“Uganda is one of the naturally endowed and biodiverse countries in the world with plethora of various forms of flora and fauna and without doubt natural capital is the backbone of Uganda’s economy as indicated by sectoral composition of her gross domestic product. If you look at our economy and dissect it, you will find out that we really depend on this natural capital,” he said.

Recommendations

The report recommends that government must initiate and undertake strategic effective dialogue with high impact national expenditure decision making stakeholders such as Parliament & relevant Government Agencies – on the need to green Covid-19 Recovery Packages.

It also recommends that there must be advocacy for environmental fiscal reforms such as tax incentives for local green enterprises, deterrent environmental fines and include environment sustainability commitment among investment license access conditions.

“Lobby for adherence to social inclusiveness and equity in the design of COVID-19 recovery packages beyond the narrow focus on economic & financial recovery. Development of an engagement strategy with Government to bilaterally track the enforcement of the polluter pays principle stipulated in the new Environment Act,” the report recommends.