Kalangala Backs Palm Oil Project

By Catherine Kigozi and Paul Tibemanya RESIDENTS of Kalangala district have criticised environmentalists for interfering in the palm oil project there. The residents said the multi-million dollar project would not endanger the district's environment. They were testifying at a public hearing organised by the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) and the agriculture ministry at the district headquarters on Thursday. The hearing was to find out people's views on the project's effect on the environment before the Government gave its final go-ahead. Bidco, a Kenya-based company, last year won the tender for the project. NEMA and the Ministry of Agriculture commissioned a research on claims by environmentalists that the destruction of forests by the project would damage the eco-system. But the residents said the project would end poverty in the district. Meanwhile, Gerald Tenywa reports that the forest department has rejected the report from an ecological study carried out recently on the project. The study was commissioned to find out whether 3,500 hectares of the forested land in the island district should be degazetted to make way for the growing of palm trees. The Forest Department, said the study was not professionally done and was contradictory. Ends