WAKISO | NAKINDIBA | BIRDS

Mornings in Busujja village, Kakiri town council in Wakiso district are now warmer compared to a few years ago, and the beautiful green scenery spiced with birds' chirping is missing in Nakindiba Forest Reserve.

You can hardly see a bird or monkey because there is barely any tree or bush to act as their habitat.

Today, new inhabitants are seen hurrying to work with hoes and pangas. Their hard work has paid off in the past two years as 20 acres of the forest reserve have been destroyed by residents who once protected it.

However, to restore the demolished part of Nakindiba Forest Reserve, several residents recently joined a tree planting campaign in Busujja village, where the forest is located.

Over 4,000 indigenous tree seedlings, including Musambya, Musiizi (Melias Derachi), Prunus Africana, Cordia Africana, and Croton macropacas, were planted on 20 hectares. 

Nakindiba Forest Reserve in Wakiso district is 142 hectares with a boundary length of 7.2 kilometers.

According to Swaibu Mugayi, a councilor of one of the areas, the indigenous trees will take a long time to grow compared to the exotic ones, but in due course, they will do what they expect.

"We have suffered a lot without the lungs of Kakiri: Nankidiba Forest. "It should live again, and with these trees, we are planting, we hope to restore our forest," he says.

The campaign was sponsored by Nature Uganda in collaboration with the National Forest Authority (NFA) under the Nankidiba Forest Restoration Project to restore the degraded areas.

Nature Uganda has found out that over 37.1% of Uganda’s forest cover has been destroyed. Achilles Byaruhanga, the executive director, said restoring natural forests, starting in urban areas, means a lot more than letting the ever-increasing population overshadow them.

Byaruhanga added that urban areas are already contaminated, and the continuous destruction of the natural environment will soon cause more trouble, such as climate change effects.

"More than 80% of us are descendants of nature." If you want firewood, energy, or food, you go and cut trees. "All these are supported by the forest in existence," he said. 

"Like this Nakindiba Forest, it purifies the air we breathe, filters the water we drink, prevents erosion, and serves as an important buffer against climate change, as well as a home for thousands of birds and animals."

According to Byaruhanga, Uganda has over 500 central forest reserves, and if protected, unusual climatic changes would end.

He added that the recent floods in Kampala destroyed people’s property and claimed lives as a result of a failure to protect urban forests, which were originally harboring water from different trenches.

"If we continue losing nature in the next 20 years, the [environment] problems we have recently seen will double and few may survive," he said. 

"This is why we are here to stop the destruction. We know we need charcoal, wood, or expansion, but nature comes first. We can have the ecosystem and secure the beauty of the country for our children," Byaruhanga said

Nevertheless, Byaruhanga said that locals have been sensitized about the beauty of protecting nature.

He says letting the people of Kakiri take control of the management of the forest would boost its security. He revealed that every person will be given more tree seedlings to plant and contribute to the cause.

Grace Katusabe, a local chairperson, said in a short time after the destruction of their only forest reserve, the climate changed and cases of human-wildlife conflict had started. 

Denis Sebugwawo, a ranger from the NFA lakeshores, said if the forest is to have a second chance, laws need to be more stringent than before.