Uganda’s ecosystems have come under enormous strain. Around two thirds of the country’s total forest area have been lost since 1990. The country has one of the highest rates of forest loss in the world. Between 2001 and 2020, the country lost 918,000 hectares of tree cover, a 12% decrease. Based on current trends, it risks losing its entire forest cover by 2040. Rainfall has become erratic, floods have increased, and droughts have become longer. Changing temperatures have been linked with more frequent and longer lasting droughts and consequent increased cattle death. Floods, landslides, droughts and extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and intensity. Uganda’s economy is vulnerable to climate change given the heavy reliance on natural resources.

Key production sectors most affected by climate are agriculture, water, energy and transport. As agriculture, forestry and fisheries decline, people migrate to urban areas, leading to the formation of slums. The Uganda National Climate Change Policy (2015) notes that the population knowledge base on climate change and its impacts remains low. There is a need to raise awareness by providing information to a wide variety of stakeholders.

Kabaka Foundation’s focus is on systematic growing of indigenous trees, across Buganda, replenishing lost forest cover which in turn would provide habitats for plants and animals in danger of extinction. This interest had led to collaborations and partnership working in with organisations holding similar interests.

Buganda’s clan system is fundamental to its culture. A clan represents a group of people who can trace their lineage to a common ancestor in some distant past. The lineage is passed down along paternal lines and the clan is the most important unit in Buganda’s culture. The clan essentially forms a large extended family and all members of a given clan regard each other as brothers and sisters regardless of how far removed from one another in terms of actual blood ties. Each of the 54 clans in Buganda has a totem, which is an animal, plant, or object that is considered sacred to the clan. There is always a main totem and a minor totem that partners it. The totem animal and plants are indigenous to Buganda.

It is a significant concern to the Kabaka Foundation that many of the Buganda totems (animals and plants) are in danger of extinction, because of loss of natural forests which are the habitats. Some of the most endangered totems include large animals like the leopard, lion and rhino, but also small birds and animals including the pangolin, the crested crane, genet cat, ngujulu. There are plants like nvuma (a seed of a Lake Victoria water plant called muvuma) under threat of extinction.