By Lucky
President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has underscored the importance of providing resources and infrastructure that provides opportunities to renew global commitment in long lasting sustenance of the earth’s diverse wildlife population.
President Museveni’s remarks were contained in the speech read for him by the Prime Minister of Uganda Rt. Hon Robinah Nabbanja yesterday March 3rd 2024, at the occasion to commemorate United Nations World Wildlife Day at Kagorogoro Primary School Playground in Kyenjojo District.
World Wildlife Day is commemorated every year on 3rd March to celebrate wild animals and plants as human beings recognize the unique roles and contributions of wildlife to people and the planet.
The President, added that the day aims at mobilizing people to participate in Wildlife conservation and raise awareness about the benefits that accrue from abundant God given wildlife resources which should be done.
The Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Hon Tom Butime reminded Ugandans the day was commemorated under the theme, “Connecting People and Planet, Exploring Digital Innovations in Wildlife Conservation”, as Wildlife remains Uganda’s biggest earner In the Tourism Sector fetching over 90% of her earnings and employing thousands of people.
The World Wildlife Day 2024 is a platform for inter-generational exchange and youth empowerment through art, presentations and conversations on the opportunities ahead for our shared sustainable future in digital wildlife conservation and this year, the stakeholders are focusing on digital innovation for wildlife conservation.
It should be realized that more than ever, we are living in a digital world and we must seize opportunities to make use of digital technologies and services to support wildlife conservation, sustainable and legal wildlife trade and human-wildlife coexistence.
“From remote assessments, artificial intelligence and drones to acoustic sensors, camera traps and tracking tags, technology can be deployed to monitor and conserve wildlife”, Minister Butime said.
Over the past fifty years, the abundance of wild animal species has declined on average by around two-thirds, which is driven by deforestation and other land-use change, unsustainable fishing and harvesting practices, pollution, invasive alien species and diseases, and climate change, therefore if no urgent action to address these drivers, over a million species face a high risk of extinction.
In December 2022, the global community agreed to take action by adopting the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, also known as the Biodiversity Plan whose four goals aim at protecting and restoring nature, to prosper with nature, to share benefits fairly and to invest and collaborate for nature with a broad mission to halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity, this decade.
By investing and collaborating for nature, there is a need to ensure access to and transfer of technology to implement the Plan, especially for developing countries like Uganda where they will strengthen capacity-building, technology transfer and scientific and technical cooperation for biodiversity.
World Wildlife Day 2024 offers a jumping off point for exploring what digital innovations are available now, what intersectional discrepancies we are facing and how we want our digital connectivity to evolve for all people and planet. While the ‘digital divide’ is slowly narrowing, women and girls are still more likely to experience gaps in digital training.
World Wildlife stakeholders have an intended target of which one is the Biodiversity Plan that aims to ensure gender equality and a gender-responsive approach for biodiversity action, because sustainable use of wild species is critical to halting and reversing biodiversity loss and biodiversity is critical for humankind’s survival on this planet.
