1. Integrating Environmental Issues into Northern Uganda’s Recovery Programmes
INTRODUCTION IN ENRM

2. DISCLAIMER
These slides are part of a training package that includes a Trainers Manual, User Guidelines and a CD-ROM with references and presentations
The production of this package was commissioned in by the Office of the Prime Minister, as part of the Northern Uganda Agriculture Livelihoods Recovery Programme (ALREP)
The training package was produced by consultants of the Makerere University College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences
The contents of the package do not necessary reflect the views and opinions of the Government of Uganda and the European Union

3. SESSION OBJECTIVES
Raise awareness and strengthen your knowledge on the importance of the environment and natural resources
Be able to understand the different components of environment explain each resource’s importance
Relate natural resources with people’s well being and economic growth of their area and the country at large

4. DEFINITIONS Environment
physical factors of the surroundings of human beings including land, water, atmosphere, climate, sound, odour, the biological factors of animals and plants and the social factor of aesthetics and includes both the natural and the built environment

5. Natural Resources
Natural resources are biotic and abiotic natural assets within the environment that are valuable to human kind
Natural resources can be used in their natural form, i.e. fresh water, air, firewood, or they have to be processed to make them useful: metal ores, oil, timber
Renewable resources are replenished naturally. The quantity of some renewable resources, i.e. air and sunlight, are not affected by human consumption (although the quality may); others (i.e. biomass) can be exhausted when off take surpasses growth
Non-renewable resources do not form (i.e. minerals), or only very slowly (i.e. petroleum) in the environment. Their harvesting or use is per definition exhaustive

6. Group work List the prevalent natural resources in your district
Which are renewable and which are not renewable

8. Importance of Natural Resources
Land resource
Complex system comprising topography, soils, minerals, water and biota
Land is an important resource for growing crops and grazing of animals
For settlements
Supports forest products
Industrial developments
Provides raw materials

9. Importance of Natural Resources
Wetland resources
Vegetated area that is flooded either permanently or seasonally
Provide fruitful habitat for valued aquatic organisms (fish, plants and other animals for game)
Provide water for human consumption and commercial use
Provide fuel wood

10. Importance of Natural Resources
Forest resources
A natural forest is an aggregation of naturally occurring indigenous tree species that is self-renewing and continuously changing (dynamic) covering a piece of land
Forest values
Provision of timber and other tree products
Source of food (fruits, vegetables, game)
Biodiversity habitat
Water catchment
Climate moderation
Carbon sink

11. Importance of Natural Resources
Wildlife resources
Undomesticated plants and animals in their natural setting such as wild trees and grasses, wild animals
Wildlife values
Aesthetic
Cultural
Tourism – income and employment
Products: meat, fish, tree and plant products
Water storage and cleansing

13. Group work
Discuss the key characteristics of sustainable use of natural resources
Discuss the tensions between sustainable resource use and development

14. Sustainable use of Natural Resources
the speed of consumption is not surpassing the regeneration of the resource or compromising its valuable functions
Is this always possible?
Issues with sustainable resource use
Benefits of resource exploitation are private, while the costs are external (i.e. to society as whole)
Benefits are direct, while costs are long-term
The intrinsic values of NR are not known or understood, and often undervalued (i.e. cleaning functions of natural wetlands)
The cause–effect relationship between use and (negative) impact are not always clear (i.e. climate change)