Don’t cut the tree you stand on

Nov 24, 2008

President Yoweri Museveni has directed that the leasing of chunks of forest reserves to individuals to plant trees be stopped immediately. There have been reports that some of the individuals who the National Forest Authority gave concession to grow trees for a limited number of years have abused th

President Yoweri Museveni has directed that the leasing of chunks of forest reserves to individuals to plant trees be stopped immediately. There have been reports that some of the individuals who the National Forest Authority gave concession to grow trees for a limited number of years have abused the forest reserves by cutting down natural trees to grow artificial trees and to mine sand.

The National Forest Authority, NFA, has since blamed the abuse of the concession on lack of adequate facilities to monitor the reforestation programme. No doubt, the NFA reforestation programme was well-intentioned but was it well-planned and implemented?

Uganda’s population estimated at 30 million today is growing at a rate of 3.2%, one of the largest in the whole world. Yet in the last two decades our forest cover has reduced by half from 26% to 13%. We are, therefore, more exposed to the risks of global warming and the subsequent dangers and whatever can be done to save the situation should be immediately done.

To assuage accusations of corruption and lack of equity, NFA should make public the lists of all the beneficiaries in the reforestation project, the criteria for recognition, the terms and conditions for the concessions and the outcomes of the project so far.

The Inspector General of Government should investigate the implementation of the project including ascertaining how much genuine forest cover the country has lost because of this project and in similar projects.

To avoid a repeat of such failed projects, there is need to involve the public in discussing and monitoring the projects so that they can blow a whistle before it is too late and in future, only organisations with proven capacity and record track performance in reforestation should be granted such concessions.

With the political will and support, as exemplified in President Museveni’s directive on the forests, Uganda can save her natural habitat and we all owe it to posterity to do so. We should not cut the tree on which we all stand.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});