The Albertine Rift and Congo Basin continues to withstand environmental degradation, as the resource-constrained population in these areas have exploit the land, while dealing with climate change challenges.
To support the communities dealing with the effects of climate change, Environmental Defenders working with Tera FM came up with the KILIMO awards intended to reward and boost the morale of individuals and organisations coming up with innovative solutions preserving the Congo Basin and Albertine landscapes.
The Kilimo Environmental Prize is awarded to individuals, groups or leaders from the Mahagi territory in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Uganda’s Albertine region winners of the KILIMO award must live in Pakwach, Nebbi, Buliisa, Nwoya, Hoima, Masindi, Kiryandongo and Kikube districts.
Launched in 2023, the KILIMO Environmental Award so far has 37 recipients.
In 2023, eighteen people and organisations were awarded. The remaining nineteen got their awards in 2024.
Award categories include Harmony with nature award, Guardians of tradition award, steward of the land award and resilience in conservation award.
Other categories are the thriving communities’ award and capacity building award.
The prize celebrates solutions to conserve the environment by giving each individual winner sh800,000. For institutional winners, the award amount stands at sh5m.
Uthubi Sebi Opio, 55, a father of 17 and a resident of Kolokoto village in Mahagi, Ituri Province in DR Congo, received sh1m for his individual efforts, trying to reduce pollution by plastic bags.
Oscar Unencan Chobidongo, the Chief for Wagungu Chiefdom in Ituri Province, DR Congo who bagged sh1m says that away from winning the cash prize, he was grateful to Environment Defenders and Tera FM for motivating the population to grow more tress.
Stanely Ombidi Thopacu, the Chief for Ker Kwong’a Chiefdom in Panyimur who won the institutional award says winning meant recognising his cultural institution’s tradition of being the custodians of knowledge that is shared with the community to protect the environment.
Chief Ker Kwong’a explained that the sh5m awarded to him, would buy goats for the community, as part of the coronation anniversary celebrations.
Fred Osaga, a resident of Dei Sub-County; was grateful for sh1 million awarded to him in 2023 for mobilising the community to extinguish fires.
“There was Murumbi Hill which was set on fire and we put it off from 1pm to 6pm but we almost got suffocated,” says Osaga, who shared the award with Aramazan Opar, another resident of Dei Sub-County too.
Source: Environmental Defenders https://watetezi.org/
