H.E President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda closed the 2nd LCA Council Meeting after four days of deliberations and reiterated the importance of business and conservation embracing each other’s interests.

“Conservation is a must, but you cannot conserve side by side with backwardness and industrialisation”, he stressed further explaining that in order to conserve the wildlife and forests, social economic transformation must first occur.

The president appealed to the business delegates to invest in Uganda and establish fruit and diary processing factories so that the farmers can have a market for their produce. The factories would also create employment for the Ugandans.

President Museveni also said that wildlife and the national parks must be protected because they are the backbone of Uganda’s tourism industry. “Tourism today brings more revenue into the country than coffee, so we must conserve the wildlife which attracts tourists,” he said. He also observed that tourism takes employment opportunities to the rural areas.

Way Forward

The LCA Council Meeting, which was preceded by a Business Breakfast Meeting at the Kampala Serena Hotel, had over 80 delegates from 15 countries. Delegates agreed that the following actions should have taken place by the time the 3rd LCA Council Meeting in Namibia takes place:-

1). National Chapters should have identified a project for implemented as part of the LCA initiative, and actions taken on getting it started.

2). Progress should have been made on identifying the international projects that LCA should get involved in.

3). Guidelines should have been produced on how to approach governments on issues of conservation and business.

4). The National Chapters should have secured registration according to the legal structures of their countries.