Environment & Economy Linkage between environment and the economy is out lined in the laws
of land, which states that the well being of Uganda is tied to the state of its
environment. Therefore the environmental products, goods and services contribute immensely to both the national income and employment. All those are critical pointers in our economy yet no major government expenditure is devoted to environment conservation and management in developing. Environment degradation and poverty is also linked because the decline in quantity and quality of environmental recourses causes decline in availability of raw materials for all inputs in industrial production ventures and consequently low out put. This of course reduces the incomes of the
population.
High mitigation measure costs In addition, continuous decline of natural resources also leads to high cost in terms of expenditures towards mitigation measures. Some times if the degradation is severe it affects the level of goods and ecological services and therefore need for restoration. Out standing in the system is the issue of the health cost. This cost is high because the population spends the little they have on health expense. The major causes of illness in Africa are a result of environment degradation. Example is that communities using and living near polluted water are susceptible to a host of both water based and other related disease and this limits development innovation by the community hence denying them financial access and moral aspects.
Sustainability
Whatever surrounds us is for all today, tomorrow and for the future days to come. It is recommended that as we promote economic development and poverty reduction, the linkages between the three systems should be the guiding principles for any actions to be undertaken. It should be noted rural development majory depends on natural resources. One of the major African problems is the low rate of urbanization. Its not surprising to find out 90% of the population living in rural setting and facing the rural related difficulties like, poor health services, poor road infrastructure, poverty, poor education facilities, poor sanitation facilities and some time lack of food. This trend of event in Africa has not received considerable attention from politicians and other policy makers as it is in South America, Asia, and Middle East.
Summits Reports from the last two earth summits of 1992 in RIO Brazil and 2002 in Johannesburg on Sustainable Development indicates that in the year 2050 about half of the world population will be living in urban centers due to increased literacy levels. However this sounds more prominent to other continents whose population is flexible and without lots of attachment to originality. In Africa, our people are attached to their birthplaces and some times complete migration from rural to urban is impossible. Therefore it means that even in the years mentioned the percentages of Africa’s population living in urban centres may not rise to that projected and hence having still big population in the rural areas. It’s upon such attributes that put forward the issue of rural planning and development because every person there depends on natural resources for livelihood. Since the majority of African population is rural based, there is need for the promotion of community based natural resource management, (CBNRM) to address highly inspired, environmental, economic and social justice goals. The UN conference on environment and development on agenda 21 noted that the sustainable lively hoods approaches is a powerfully integrating concepts that offers a way to link social economic and ecological consideration in a cohesive policy or relevant structure. The lively hood concept is used here to mean the activities, entitlement and assets thatpeople draw upon to make a living. Agricultural activities in rural areas are done on small scale and without any mechanization or use of chemical fertilizers and improved seeds. Also some rural residents are traditionally cattle herdsmen like Masai, Karamajong in east Africa and Fulani in West Africa. The natural resource is an asset to them because it is was their animals get grass. Rural residents use cattle for ploughing and also as a mean of transport. Still these animals are source of proteins (milk & meat) and the animal waste is used as fertilizer
Water sources
Water as a basic necessity for people needs proper management because there is no way living things could survive without water. Fisheries is a very important resource in the rural areas because it provides employment to fish communities. Most of these communities move from one fishing camp to another depending on season. Recently it is rated among the top ten revenue earners to the government of Uganda. Others considered of great importance to communities in the rural areas in terms of economic activity is perhaps tourism because it has the potential to employ and generate income for majority of rural residents in Africa. Important to note is that programmes that ignore realties and disenfranchise people from the resources will attract resistance in future. Traditional wars and conflicts in the world were basically for power and recognition but the wars to come will result from environment concerns. In order to avoid that Community Based Natural Resource Management should take route in the rural areas because the well being of the residents and communities is based on natural resources.