National Forestry Authority (NFA) is looking for about sh480b for the next five years to effectively and efficiently protect the country’s forest reserves under its mandate.

Stuart Maniraguha the director of plantations development explained that the Authority’s strategic plan for the five years is looking at a total budget of about sh480b which is translated into about sh80b annually to effectively and efficiently deliver their mandate.

“Currently, we are receiving a budget allocation of about sh36b from the government, which is not sufficient enough to make us fully operational. This is a very big challenge because some of the planned activities end up not being implemented,” he said.

Maniraguha said NFA has 506 central forest reserves under its mandate with a staffing level of about 350 staff from headquarters spreading through the different fields where the forests are located.

“That number is very small compared to the estates we are managing, even if all of us are sent in the field and divided the forests amongst us, there will be some forests without having any presence of a staff,” he said.

Speaking during the unveiling of the new board of directors at NFA’s offices in Namanve, Maniraguha stated that the Authority is now having its strategic direction enshrined into its new strategic plan 2020-25 that is very well anchored into the National Development Plan III and the Sustainable Development Goals.

“This plan has been well thought about and clearly indicates where we would want to be as National Forestry Authority as a global leader in sustainable forest management.

We are looking beyond Uganda because we know our forest ecosystems do the job beyond the boundaries of this country, “he said.

The new board of directors unveiled is being chaired by Dr Christopher Ebal with four other members.

According to Ebal, the new board has already started working on its mandates of putting up measures to protect the forests which are very key in mitigating climatic changes.

“We recently published through the Ministry of Lands and Urban Development 420 titles of land titles in forests reserves which are illegal and require cancellation.

The law provides us to publish them and tell those who acquired them that they are illegal titles and we are going to cancel them, and once the owners fail to explain to us how they got the titles, we shall automatically cancel them,” he said.

Regarding sustainable forest management, Ebal said that they have been having challenges of encroachers, especially in Wakiso and Kajjasi.

“Just like in Kajjansi, we are winning the case because the gazetted land is more powerful and cannot be compared to the illegal titles. 

Those who acquired illegal titles in the forests are just wasting their time, we have taken them to courts and we are winning these cases, we are recently telling the land division that the land gazetted with clear instruments is more powerful than the land titles,” he said.

He explained that the encroachers are everywhere but they are involving every stakeholder to pursue all the cases in the courts of law.

“We are using the environmental protection police because we are very thin on the ground and this is now a stakeholder engagement where the community must protect the forests because of the benefits that accrue from them,” he stated.

Ebal observed the need for sustainable management of the central forest reserves to enhance the provision of quality products and services for the social-economic development of Uganda.

“We have been talking about changing Uganda into a middle-income status by 2040, the forest products play a very crucial role in the social-economic development, there are so many good things in the forests and once we destroy them, we cannot achieve the middle-income status by 2040,” he said.