ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the incorporation of international environmental conventions into Ugandan law and explores how this affects the country’s foreign policy. Uganda is a land-locked developing country in East Africa. It lies to the south of Sudan, east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, west of Kenya, north of Rwanda and across the equator from Tanzania. It covers an area of 241,039 square kilometers and has a population of 30 million (2007 estimates) with a 3.4 per cent annual birth rate. Since 1995, it has had an annual economic growth rate of over 5 per cent. Politically, Uganda practices a decentralized administration with most political and administrative decisions taken and implemented at the level of its 72 districts (UNDP Uganda 2007). It operates a parliamentary system with a constitution that allows for multiparty activities and elections every five years. In 1986, Uganda experienced a dramatic change. Internal conflicts and the

breakdown of law and order gave way to a government that respected law and order, and which enabled democratization. This change included both discussion and formulation of a constitution through a consultative process and national elections for parliament and president. The National Resistance Movement (NRM) leadership, which spearheaded this dramatic change, came to power in 1986 after a protracted bush war. After the establishment of the new constitution in 1996 and with multi-party democracy established, the NRM changed into a political party, the National Resistance Movement Organization (NRM-O), and has won subsequent parliamentary and presidential elections. This chapter expands on the two-dimensional topology of foreign policy

variables described in the theoretical chapter by Barkdull and Harris (Chapter 2) by showing that, at the national level, Uganda’s environmental policies tend to operate at the intersection of state-, power-and interestbased variables. This chapter further shows that Uganda’s environmental foreign policy development is largely described by state-centric theory, and to a lesser extent by society-centric theory. This chapter is divided into four main sections. The first outlines the

history of the development of Uganda’s foreign policy, the major players in environmental foreign policy in Uganda, and the major factors affecting

the determination of foreign policy. The second provides a very brief introduction to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the status of its implementation in Uganda. The CBD is used as an example of the relationship between the environment and foreign policy in Uganda, which is discussed in the third section of the chapter. Here we also analyze the relationship between environment and foreign policy, identifying factors influencing environmental concerns in the foreign policy of Uganda. The final section presents general recommendations on how best to implement international environmental policies within Uganda and other developing countries, in the process avoiding policy contradictions and conflicts.