How Uganda’s illegal logging escalated by Covid-19 pandemic should be regulated

Aug 10, 2021

Illegal logging is one of the recurring threats that Uganda has been facing over the years with a total forest cover loss of 122,000 hectares per year.

How Uganda’s illegal logging escalated by Covid-19 pandemic should be regulated

NewVision Reporter
Journalist @NewVision

By Dorcus Drijaru

Forests play an important role in achieving sustainable development, a green economy and poverty eradication since they are key land ecological unit ensuring the preservation of bio-diversity and they are important source of renewable materials that need to be protected through monitoring tools.

Illegal logging is one of the recurring threats that Uganda has been facing over the years with a total forest cover loss of 122,000 hectares per year. This is caused by heightened livelihood challenges faced by communities due to environmental factors and natural factors like the on-Covid-19 pandemic.

Although the above forest loss has been estimated on average, the increased livelihood demands by the communities surrounding the forests to attain sustainable survival during the hard economic situations caused by Covid-19 pandemic, has escalated more depletion to acquire timber, firewood, charcoal and other necessary requirements.

It’s mandated that forests are supposed to be managed on sustainable basis through the supply of high quality forestry related products by offering services to Government, local communities and private sector hence there should be policies to follow.

Considerably, there should be sustainable livelihood alternatives created to maintain the population against encroachment and controlling depletion of the remaining forest resources by means of strengthening  up the existing monitoring policies by the Collaborative Forest Management (CFM) committees, Civil society organizations-CSOs and government forest/environmental management bodies like National Forest Authority (NFA), National Environment Management Authority (NEMA),Uganda Wildlife Authority-UWA  through stringent policies.

The policies to follow should contain initiating legislation, policy formulation, setting standards inspections, co-ordination and backing up the system through technical support in relation to water and environment sub-sectors and boost monitoring by “Increasing the role of Civil society in fighting illegal logging” aimed at stopping illegal logging, encourage respect for nature and conserving  forests to shun climate change.

To protect the remaining forest cover that has been depleted for long therefore, stakeholders including NFA,NEMA, ministries in charge of forests, Private forest owners, Cultural institutions Civil society Organizations (CSOs),communities and many others should intensify protecting forests from degradation.

To strengthen the role of civil society organizations in governing  forest resources and processes in Uganda through a robust, operational and shared independent forest monitoring mechanisms, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the united states and Ugandan government   through Forest law enforcement, governance and trade (FLEGT) supports  National Association of professional Environmentalists (NAPE)-a national non-governmental /Environmental organization to carry out independent forest monitoring under the FAO-EU-FLEGT project which falls under the Organization’s  “ Forests and Biodiversity” Programme.

All the above can be attained through a vigorous  and functional independent forest monitoring and strategy for all developed types of forests in Uganda, during the on-going hard economic situation there should be close monitoring to stop illegal logging which is currently on the rise and still on-going.

Hence the beat of monitoring and controlling the depletion of the remaining forest resources in the current wave of economic hardship and increased need to improve livelihoods also involves district/Non-Governmental monitoring committees, the Environmental police, Collaborative Forest Management committees (CFMCs),timber dealers and growers’ Associations and lastly Licensing body-Uganda Revenue Authority (URA).

For efficacy, there should be dialogues between forest administrators and having collaborative Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) with districts hosting the vast forest reserves in Uganda hand in hand with setting up suitable control measures.

Joint role played by the responsible forest governing bodies in meeting the objectives and goals of controlling or regulating cutting down of the limited forest cover in the name of attaining sustainable livelihoods in the current moments of increased demand for survival is key.

However, promoting sensitization of the local communities about the importance of safeguarding the forest resources is vital because it helps curb the adverse effects of climate change caused by abject degradation caused by either encroachment or excessive logging.

The stakeholders responsible for the governing of the forest resources include National Forestry Authority (NFA),National Environment management Authority (NEMA),National ministry in charge of forests, Private forest owners, cultural institutions, Civil Society Organizations-CSOs, Sacred Forest owners, District NGO monitoring committees, Environmental police, Collaborative forest monitoring committees, timber dealers, Uganda timber growers Association-UTGA.

To execute the above, National Environment management Authority-NEMA as a principal agency responsible for management of the Environment in Uganda should therefore coordinate, monitor and supervise all activities in the field of the environment hence national Forest Authority-NFA should manage the central forest reserves on a sustainable basis and to supply high quality forests related.

At the beginning of this year, the world commemorated the  International Day of Forests that focused on restoration of the lost forest cover under the theme "Forest restoration: a path to recovery and well-being" which has been hampered by constant depletion caused by different income earning alternatives by poverty stricken communities in the wake of the pandemic.

The writer is a project Communications Officer for Forest and Bio-diversity Project at National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE)

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