Country Comments

Uganda has roughly twice as many people than can be sustained based on its renewable resource availability.

A policy paper on Uganda out of The School of Economics and Commercial Law, Goteborg University, reported over 90% of the population directly or indirectly depends on the products and services from agriculture, fisheries, forests, wetlands etc. Natural resources account for 85 % of export earnings and more than 80% of the workforce is active in agriculture. The country is subject to several environment-related worrying trends which put economic, environmental and social development at risk. These include soil degradation, deforestation, drainage of wetlands, loss of biodiversity, pollution and unsanitary conditions. (1)

The country has a high total fertility rate averaging over 5 children per woman but down from 7 children two decades ago. The Guardian reported ignorance and a lack of access to contraceptives to millions of women as a cause of environmental degradation. (2)

Uganda has also been very welcoming of refugees. Migrationpolicy.org in 2018 reported more than 1 million of the country’s estimated 1.5 million refugees have arrived within the past two years, mostly from the civil war in South Sudan and ethnic conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. With few resources to offer to so many displaced people, Uganda represents a case study for generous refugee-hosting policies in otherwise challenging social and economic conditions. These twin forces of acting as a humanitarian refuge and high fertility rates will also intensify the challenging environmental sustainability conditions the country faces.(3)

(1) https://sidaenvironmenthelpdesk.se/digitalAssets/1725/1725300_environmental-and-climate-change-policy-brief-uganda-2006.pdf

(2) https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/aug/26/use-your-11bn-climate-fund-to-pay-for-family-planning-uk-told?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

(3) https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/can-ugandas-breakthrough-refugee-hosting-model-be-sustained