By KT Reporter
Mulago National Referral Hospital has launched an initiative in which they plan to plant 1,500 medicinal trees around the hospital complex.
This drive comes at a time when most of the seventy-five hectares of land in Mulago have either already been built on or construction is ongoing, something that Dr Rosemary Byanyima says defeats healing, with increasing evidence that greenery boosts recovery.
Byanyima says that the hospital has now become intentional in devising ways of conserving nature amidst expansion, having started with the consultants’ forum planting their trees early in the year.
Vincent Biribonwa, the Director of Physical Planning at Kampala City Council Authority (KCCA), says Mulago’s initiative is timely, coming in at a time when the authority is pushing for legislation to protect green areas in the city under their urban forestry programme. He says they have already set a target of ensuring up to 7,500 trees are planted in Kampala each year and are currently looking for ways of achieving this.
Martin Mwodi, the Director of Plantations Development at the National Forestry Authority, expressed reservations that trees that are planted ceremoniously often don’t yield as people who plant them never go back past the launch event to see whether their plants are progressing.
He says that they are moving away from promoting tree planting to growing and that they are now adopting the use of technology, using GPS to trace progress when such trees are planted.
Mwodi says that while they have been asking people in the rural areas to engage in tree growing as a business with the thinking that people will protect it as their source of income, in the urban areas like in Mulago, they will need strict guidelines to be able to sustain the plants which is why ordinances will come in handy-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
