We need a forestry protection unit
Jul 28, 2009
I refer to the story “illegal loggers kill NFA official and family†that ran in <i>The New Vision</i> of July 24. According to the story, illegal timber loggers set ablaze and killed Patrick Kalemera and his eight-month pregnant wife and their three-y
Nathan Were
I refer to the story “illegal loggers kill NFA official and family†that ran in The New Vision of July 24. According to the story, illegal timber loggers set ablaze and killed Patrick Kalemera and his eight-month pregnant wife and their three-year-old daughter.
This comes just a few months after other National Forest Authority (NFA) officials, Alfred Ezati and Emanuel Asiimwe, were brutally murdered in Jibiya Forest Reserve.
The emerging deaths of forestry workers can, in part, be ascribed to the skyrocketing demand for timber as a result of the flourishing construction industry. While the demand is on the rise, the supply is not sufficient to support the current construction needs. This perhaps explains the depletion of forest reserves.
Use of unacceptable instruments to cut trees and the increasing cases of illegal timber transportation across the country.
This is exposing forestry officials and their families to great danger. Long term measures are needed to protect our forests plus the lives of forestry workers and their families.
In the early 1990s, as response to revenue losses due to smuggling, the Government put in place the Special Revenue Protection Services, a unit under the Uganda Revenue Authority, that was to end this illegal act on the borders of Busia, Mutukula and Malaba. The unit cracked down the long-time smugglers in these areas and averted huge tax losses.
We need a similar unit under the NFA to not only save the lives of forestry workers, but also protect our forests from destruction.
Besides, we also need to designate a military unit to further beef-up the security in the forestry reserves and surrounding areas. The timber business is lucrative and loggers will employ all available means including taking lives, to illegally cut and extract timber from the forests. It is only military intervention that can put an end to this.
The forests are important to us not only as sources of timber, but also as a natural cover for environment protection. NFA workers and their families need more protection if they are to guard these forests for Ugandans to enjoy the benefits they provide.
The writer is a business development and research officer at Equity Bank Uganda
I refer to the story “illegal loggers kill NFA official and family†that ran in The New Vision of July 24. According to the story, illegal timber loggers set ablaze and killed Patrick Kalemera and his eight-month pregnant wife and their three-year-old daughter.
This comes just a few months after other National Forest Authority (NFA) officials, Alfred Ezati and Emanuel Asiimwe, were brutally murdered in Jibiya Forest Reserve.
The emerging deaths of forestry workers can, in part, be ascribed to the skyrocketing demand for timber as a result of the flourishing construction industry. While the demand is on the rise, the supply is not sufficient to support the current construction needs. This perhaps explains the depletion of forest reserves.
Use of unacceptable instruments to cut trees and the increasing cases of illegal timber transportation across the country.
This is exposing forestry officials and their families to great danger. Long term measures are needed to protect our forests plus the lives of forestry workers and their families.
In the early 1990s, as response to revenue losses due to smuggling, the Government put in place the Special Revenue Protection Services, a unit under the Uganda Revenue Authority, that was to end this illegal act on the borders of Busia, Mutukula and Malaba. The unit cracked down the long-time smugglers in these areas and averted huge tax losses.
We need a similar unit under the NFA to not only save the lives of forestry workers, but also protect our forests from destruction.
Besides, we also need to designate a military unit to further beef-up the security in the forestry reserves and surrounding areas. The timber business is lucrative and loggers will employ all available means including taking lives, to illegally cut and extract timber from the forests. It is only military intervention that can put an end to this.
The forests are important to us not only as sources of timber, but also as a natural cover for environment protection. NFA workers and their families need more protection if they are to guard these forests for Ugandans to enjoy the benefits they provide.
The writer is a business development and research officer at Equity Bank Uganda