A strong green environment is envisioned to reduce the ravages of climate change in Bugiri Municipality at a time when the town is experiencing rapid expansion in the built environment. This expansion is happening at the expense of the natural environment to provide space for settlements. The project envisages making the town smarter and livable.
Idea
Starting Up
Implementation
Realised
The strategy was to plant 300,000 trees to restore part of the green cover lost in urban expansion. This would reduce ravages of climate change for urban sustainability. By using nature based solutions to stem ravages of climate change, the greening strategy w'd be cost effective but durable solution in reducing flooding while improving t beauty of the city. However, this effort has so far taken a slow pace as the survival rate has been only 25% partly due to absence of community participation.
The use of nature based solutions on climate action.
Innovations that are culturally nearer or closer to general public are adopted for easier implementation
Environment restoration plays both a city beautification as well as an adaptation role
Partnership is key in successfully implementing urban based projects
community participation should always be embraced in success of projects
The project cannot be realised in the longer rather than shorter term
City greening is cost- effective and sustainable strategy for reducing climate change impact while improving city outlook. This strategy has worked well for many European cities like Malmo and Utrecht. In these cities nature based solutions have significantly controlled floods and heat waves where grey infrastructure was ineffective. It also comes with natural beauty and leads to urban resilience. Finally I urge the city authorities to ensure public engagement for better and sustainable results.
