Makerere University has honoured the late Dr Festus Bagoora with a series of annual memorial lectures.
Bagoora was an academician, environmental activist and civil servant. At the launch of the series on October 7, chief guest Mary Kitutu, the minister of state for environment, said there is such a huge crisis in the country’s forestry sector that necessitates someone of the caliber of the late Dr Festus Bagoora to tackle.
She lamented that after the destruction of local government, community and private forests, now the victim is central government forests. Kitutu said the forest cover has shrunk to a third of what it was in 1990 and almost everyone seems overwhelmed as to what to do.
Having been an employee of the National Environment Authority for more than 10 years, Kitutu said they (Nema staff) had repeatedly warned about the looming crisis and although the institution put up a solid legal and regulatory framework, the goodwill and implementation have been wanting.
At the inaugural lecture about the late Bagoora (1952-2015) at Makerere University main hall, Dr Yazidhi Bamutaze, head of the department of Geography, Geo-informatics and Climatic Sciences, said the department decided to set up the lecture series in recognition of an intellectual giant in geomorphology, a selfless teacher, environmental advocate and civil servant of high integrity.
“He was a no-nonsense man; very few people today can stand to that level. He was very dependable; a very rare trait today. He preferred a simple life to material things and lived a life of great sacrifices,” Kitutu said of Bagoora.
Former Nema executive director Henry Aryamanya Mugisha, the keynote speaker, said Bagoora was a man who often declined promotions into administrative positions and preferred doing field research, advocacy, teaching and mentoring others.
“Bagoora worked tirelessly on regulations on lake shores, mountains, hill slopes and wetlands. He was instrumental in developing environmental standards, ordinances and bylaws. The term ‘ecosystem services’ was coined by him and his colleagues,” Mugisha said.
Bagoora was described as an encyclopedia in environmental geomorphology and hydrology, land and soil management, environmental measurements of meteorological and boundary- layer climatological parameters, and hydrology of surface and sub-surface waters.
Mugisha called for networking, political commitment and patriotism and creativity as more important than the cry for funding if the forests, mountains, wetlands, soils and general environment are to be restored to sustainability.
“Our society requires ordinary people with extraordinary determination, those who believe the impossible can be broken into possibilities and are willing to learn, relearn and unlearn, the likes of Bagoora,” he concluded.
jmusinguzi@observer.ug