‘More girls embrace forestry courses’
AL-MAHDI SSENKABIRWA
MASINDI .More girls have embraced forestry courses, a trend
conservationists say would energise their efforts to salvage the disappearing
forest cover in the country.
Figures from Nyabyeya Forestry College, the sole institution in
the country that trains certificate and diploma students in forestry related
courses, female enrollment currently stands 40 percent, up from 36 percent in
the last two years.
“This issue of gender imbalance has for long been puzzling us
but with more girls taking such training programmes we have hope that the
forestry conservation will be strengthened,” said Dr Wilson Kasolo , the
principal of the college.
He said their deliberate affirmative action had empowered female
students to the extent that some out-compete their male counterparts in many
disciplines.
Dr Kasolo made the revelation on Saturday during the college’s
52th graduation ceremony. A total of 410 students graduated with diplomas and
certificates in Forestry, Agroforestry, Biomass Energy Technologies, and
Beekeeping. Female students constituted 37 percent of the total number of
graduands, reflecting an increase of 83 percent in the number of females
graduating from the college compared to 95 previously.
State Minister for Environment ,Ms Flavia Munaba who presided
over the ceremony said women were a strong force to reckon with to fight global
warning which is partly blamed on the indiscriminate cutting-down trees .
“Women have a different emotional attachment to forestsland than
men given the fact that they are the ones who fetch firewood and in some
communities they construct homes .And if they are empowered with professional
and technical training in forestry, it is going to simplify our work of
restoring our depleted forest cover,” she said Uganda’s forest cover remains at
risk since some timber harvesters use outlawed machines. Available statics
indicate that 90 percent of timber in Uganda is illegal, meaning
it is harvested, transported and traded without licenses from government
agencies. According to the National Development Plan, Uganda’s forestry cover
declined from 4,933,746 hectares in 1990 to 3,604,176 in 2005, representing a
27 percent reduction.
Ms Rachael Musoke, the commissioner for forestry in the ministry
water and environment said with more girls joining the profession, their work
is cut out in the ministry. “Three decades back, it was a frightening
experience as I was the only female offering forestry in a class of 26 students
at Makerere University and I am delighted to see more girls coming up at a time
we need them most,” said Ms Musoke, the first female forester in East and
Central Africa.
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