Kagame shames Museveni with ‘Gold Award’
By John Stephen Katende
26th Sept 2011:
Are they toasting Kagame's 'Gold Award'?
New York – Rwandan President Maj. General Paul Kagame has put his more senior Ugandan counterpart General Yoweri Museveni to great shame after he [Kagame] won the coveted United Nation’s ‘Gold Award’ for great ‘forest promotion policies’. For the context, it should be noted that while Uganda has been at it for decades, Rwanda only initiated its forestry programme in 2004.
At the September 21st award ceremony, former United States Track and Field legend Carl Lewis, himself a nine-time Olympic gold medal winner, [now United Nations Goodwill Ambassador] said Rwanda’s ‘forest promotion policies’ are more important than the many medals he has garnered.
“…I kind of know about awards. I have had a few myself and I think it’s much more important that we talk about this award because it affects everyone…so I hope that all of you can be inspired to do what you can in your communities and in your forests to make your worlds a better place,” said Carl Lewis who in his sporting career, won 10 Olympic medals, nine of them gold, and 10 World Championships medals, eight of them gold.
Policies from the United States and Gambia were runners-up, winning joint silvers in the Future Policy Award announced at UN Headquarters in New York by the World Future Council (WFC), a group of 50 respected personalities from all five continents representing governments, parliaments, the arts, civil society, science and business world.
The annual awards celebrate policies that create better living conditions for current and future generations, and seek to raise global awareness and speed up action towards just, sustainable and peaceful societies. This year’s topic was forests, with 16 entries from 20 countries. The award was sponsored by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
“…Despite the genocide and continuing population and land pressures, Rwanda is one of only three countries in Central and Western Africa to achieve a major reversal in the trend of declining forest cover and is on course to achieving its goal of forest cover of 30 per cent of total land area by the year 2020”, WFC Director Alexandra Wandel said as he announced Rwanda’s gold medal.
The WFC Director also commended the government of Rwanda for taking the lead “…developing visionary forest policy but also bio-diversity conservation, ecotourism, green jobs”. Rwanda’s forest cover has increased by 37% since 1990 because of reforestation policies that promote indigenous species and involve the local population. New agro-forestry and education measures have also been implemented.
One silver award went to the US Lacey Act Amendment of 2008 which prohibits all trade in wood and plant products that are knowingly illegally sourced from a US state or any foreign country, forcing importers to take responsibility for their wood products. The second silver went to Gambia’s Community Forestry Policy which was put in place with FAO support.
Gambia’s Community Forestry Policy is unique because it’s the first in Africa to provide local populations with secure and permanent forest ownership rights. Transferring forest tenure from state ownership to management by local communities enables them to reduce illegal logging and forest fires, slow desertification and benefit from the forest products.
“…The success of the Gambia’s Community Forest Policy proves that even in the world’s poorest countries, with the right policies and legal framework in place, rural populations can benefit economically from forests and significantly improve their food security and environment”, FAO’s Assistant Director-General for Forestry Eduardo Rojas-Briales said.
The Director of the Secretariat of the UN Forum on Forests, Jan McAlpine, noted that the awards come “at a really critical time” because of the…needs of dealing with development goals and the…adverse impact of unsustainable exploitation on climate, biodiversity, and livelihoods. END. Please login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.
