{UAH} Stop destruction of Bugoma forest for cultivation

By Sam Mucunguzi

The proposed cutting down of 22sq miles (20 per cent) of Bugoma Forest Reserve to enable an investor to grow sugarcane is the worst news any environmentalist would want to hear. The forest area to be cut is located in Kyangwali Sub-county, Kikuube District. Kyangwali Resettlement Scheme and Lake Albert are to the far west and north-west respectively.

Bugoma forest is a sanctuary for wildlife, especially chimpanzees and rare birds. This is not only looked at as tourism, which currently earns Uganda more than Shs1.4 trillion in foreign exchange (2019/2020 Budget). But also, the sensitive biodiversity of water bodies and forests, national parks and wetlands and the roles they provide that depend on this forest.

Sadly, some of the encroachers have permits from a government agency that is mandated to protect and conserve natural resources. The National Environment Management Authority (Nema), is at the forefront of issuing certificates of operation in these sensitive ecosystems and this must stop.

The investor has already submitted their Environmental social impact assessment (ESIA) to Nema for review and approval. This comes after a court case that National Forest Authority (NFA) lost to Hoima Sugar Limited and Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom. On April 25, 2019, Justice Wilson Masalu Musene, awarded the developer part of the forest with costs. Moreover, NFA is still in court with two other developers, who are contesting for ownership of huge chucks of Bugoma forest given that they already have titles.

Committed local and international efforts have come with programmes to save Bugoma forest. Among them is the European Union in Uganda, Action for Conservation of Bugoma Forest (ACBF), which is a coalition of 20 organisations. Citizens' Concern Africa (CICOA) as a member of this ACBF coalition have all fought similar wars with encroachers and government, for instance, on Lwera swamp in Kalungu District, that was given to Chinese rice growers.

The challenges with these fights is that the bodies mandated to protect the forest are the ones that issue licences for developments on these natural resources.

This has not only been a huge hindrance to reverting this occurrence, but also costly to government, where courts have awarded huge sums of money to the developers. A case in point is the Lwera sand mining where court ordered government to pay more than Shs80b in compensation to the sand miner.

The multi-faceted contribution of the forest sector to broader development targets bears testament to the central role forests will play in social and economic recovery in the aftermath of Covid-19. Forest products, including non-wood forest products, continue to support livelihoods during Covid-19 lockdown. Forests provide essential items biomass for heating, ethanol for sanitiser, respirator paper and packaging for parcels.

Therefore, cost attachment of these natural resources like the value of wetland and forests should be factored in when developers come with figures of taxes and employment to be created.

The ministry and agencies mandated to protect the forest should have an updated data base showing the cost of these natural resources.

Sam Mucunguzi,

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"When a man is stung by a bee, he doesn't set off to destroy all beehives"

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