Uganda needs about shs395 billion in the short term to restore wetlands and forest ecosystems to a minimum projection of l0% and l5% coverage respectively.

This has been revealed by the minister of State for Environment Beatrice Anywar while presenting a statement on the status of environment and natural resources in Uganda.

Anywar says Uganda’s Environment and Natural Resources sub-sector has registered a tremendous decline over the last 29 years.

According to Anywar, since 1990 wetlands declined from 15.6% to 8.4% in 2017 while forest cover reduced from 24% to 9% in 2017 making Uganda among the most rapidly deforesting nations in the world.

She has attributed the decline to a number of drivers including but not limited to industrialization, unplanned urbanization, deforestation and agriculture.

She adds that the high population growth rate of 3.2% annually and poverty levels is also another factor.