No amount of money can buy Mabira Forest!
PERSPECTIVE OF A UGANDAN IN CANADA<br><br><b>Opiyo Oloya</b><br><br>Dear fellow Ugandans, a week ago tomorrow, what began as a peaceful demonstration against the planned giveaway of Uganda’s precious Mabira Forest ended tragically in the death of three people including 25-year old Devang Rawal
PERSPECTIVE OF A UGANDAN IN CANADA
Opiyo Oloya
Dear fellow Ugandans, a week ago tomorrow, what began as a peaceful demonstration against the planned giveaway of Uganda’s precious Mabira Forest ended tragically in the death of three people including 25-year old Devang Rawal from the Indian state of Gujarati.
Even as we bury these innocent victims, we need very sober reflection on what happened that day.
Foremost, there is absolutely no quibbling over the tragic loss of lives and property worth thousands of dollars. The actions of a few criminals who took advantage of a popular cause to commit these dastardly deeds must be condemned in the strongest terms.
Those identified to have committed criminal activities during the demonstration including the murder of an innocent man passing by on his motorcycle must face the full weight of the law. However, despite claims by some politicians, the Mabira issue is not about political affiliation. Indeed, the participants in the Kampala demonstration last Thursday were as likely to be supporters of the NRM, DP, FDC, UPC, and KY as completely apolitical. The point being that Ugandans across the political spectrum have awakened to conservation issues impacting on our forests, game reserves, water reservoirs, wetlands and many others.
While environmental crusaders like former US Vice President Al Gore spread the message of global warming across the globe, it is the small peasant farmer in Rukungiri who is acting locally to reduce, reuse and recycle. Today, throughout continental Africa, grassroots movements like Uganda’s Albertine Rift Conservation Society (ARCOS), Kenya’s ILIMA, Nigerian Environmental Society (NES), Gambia’s Stay-Green Foundation (SGF), and many others are teaching simple messages: For every tree felled today there is one less tree to absorb the carbon emissions threatening our planet tomorrow. This and other conservation messages transcend political parties and boundaries.
Secondly, the issue of Mabira giveaway is not about Ugandans of Indian ancestry and foreigners versus the rest of Ugandans. Many are fellow citizens, our friends and our family in every sense. They are not hyphenated Ugandans—they are Ugandans, period. Ironically, many are equally if not more worried about the giveaway of Mabira Forest for sugarcane plantation because of the environmental and business implications.
As citizens, Uganda Asians also want a clean country free of pollution in which to bring up their children and grand-children. Furthermore, many own businesses that depend on visitors and tourists coming to enjoy Uganda’s beautiful nature. They know that the spectre of a heavily industrialised Uganda stripped naked of its naturally attractive features such as forests, wild animal parks and mountains will be less appealing to visitors. After all, why should a tourist from the German city of Düsseldorf or Kyoto, Japan waste precious money to come all the way to Uganda just to look at thick black smoke rising from rows upon rows of factories?
Not surprising, therefore, Tororo MP Sanjay Tanna was quoted as saying that the Asian communities are opposed to the tearing down of Mabira forest.
Indeed, the proposed giveaway of Mabira has generated fury similar to those experienced elsewhere around the globe where conservation has clashed with exploitative development.
For example, one of the largest mass civil disobedience in recent Canadian history was the June to October 1993 protest against the logging of trees in Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island, on Canada’s west coast. Clayoquot Sound is the largest area of ancient temperate rainforest left on the island, where trees as old as 1,500 years old can grow over 15 feet in diameter. In 1993 Canadians from coast to coast were galvanized when the government announced that two-thirds of the Sound would open to logging by a company called Macmillan Bloedel (shortened to “MacBlo†by protesters who saw it as the very incarnation of evil exploitation).
During the more than 100 day protests, protesters from across Canada and the world converged on Clayoquot, some chaining themselves to trees to stop big machines from cutting down the trees. Over 900 people were arrested in Clayoquot Sound for defying court orders outlawing the blockading of logging roads.
Many were happy to go to jail for several months to protect this unique environmental treasure. Similar protests have been staged in Washington State, USA against tissue maker Kimberly-Clark’s for logging in boreal forests, in Brazil to protect the Amazon, in Europe and elsewhere where natural forests are in danger of disappearing in the face of growing demand for wood and land space.
What Uganda leaders including President Yoweri Museveni need to appreciate is that Mabira Forest has gained both real and symbolic meanings to every Ugandan irrespective of ethnicity, gender or politics. This beautiful ancient forest has come to symbolize uncorrupted national heritage of incalculable value. In the same manner one cannot put a price tag on the Amazon in South America, Black Forest in Germany, China’s Yangtze River and India’s Ganges river, one cannot put dollar figures on Mabira forest.
At the same time, the real meaning of Mabira to every Ugandan is very clear—in its pristine state as nature’s reserve, it belongs to every man, woman and child in the nation, from Arua to Kabale, from Mbale to Mbarara. As blighted plots for sugarcane, it is the private property of the few who will exploit it for personal profits. To paraphrase Robert F. Kennedy Jr. when he spoke about the Clayoquot Sound protests, those peacefully protesting the giveaway of Mabira Forest are asserting public ownership over resources which, under Uganda’s law, are owned by all Ugandans, but, in practice, are treated as the personal fiefdoms of a few giant companies.
In this case, it is the Mehta Group talking as if it owns Mabira Forest—It does not. Mabira Forest is worth protecting—peacefully.
Opiyo.oloya@sympatico.ca
Opiyo Oloya
Dear fellow Ugandans, a week ago tomorrow, what began as a peaceful demonstration against the planned giveaway of Uganda’s precious Mabira Forest ended tragically in the death of three people including 25-year old Devang Rawal from the Indian state of Gujarati.
Even as we bury these innocent victims, we need very sober reflection on what happened that day.
Foremost, there is absolutely no quibbling over the tragic loss of lives and property worth thousands of dollars. The actions of a few criminals who took advantage of a popular cause to commit these dastardly deeds must be condemned in the strongest terms.
Those identified to have committed criminal activities during the demonstration including the murder of an innocent man passing by on his motorcycle must face the full weight of the law. However, despite claims by some politicians, the Mabira issue is not about political affiliation. Indeed, the participants in the Kampala demonstration last Thursday were as likely to be supporters of the NRM, DP, FDC, UPC, and KY as completely apolitical. The point being that Ugandans across the political spectrum have awakened to conservation issues impacting on our forests, game reserves, water reservoirs, wetlands and many others.
While environmental crusaders like former US Vice President Al Gore spread the message of global warming across the globe, it is the small peasant farmer in Rukungiri who is acting locally to reduce, reuse and recycle. Today, throughout continental Africa, grassroots movements like Uganda’s Albertine Rift Conservation Society (ARCOS), Kenya’s ILIMA, Nigerian Environmental Society (NES), Gambia’s Stay-Green Foundation (SGF), and many others are teaching simple messages: For every tree felled today there is one less tree to absorb the carbon emissions threatening our planet tomorrow. This and other conservation messages transcend political parties and boundaries.
Secondly, the issue of Mabira giveaway is not about Ugandans of Indian ancestry and foreigners versus the rest of Ugandans. Many are fellow citizens, our friends and our family in every sense. They are not hyphenated Ugandans—they are Ugandans, period. Ironically, many are equally if not more worried about the giveaway of Mabira Forest for sugarcane plantation because of the environmental and business implications.
As citizens, Uganda Asians also want a clean country free of pollution in which to bring up their children and grand-children. Furthermore, many own businesses that depend on visitors and tourists coming to enjoy Uganda’s beautiful nature. They know that the spectre of a heavily industrialised Uganda stripped naked of its naturally attractive features such as forests, wild animal parks and mountains will be less appealing to visitors. After all, why should a tourist from the German city of Düsseldorf or Kyoto, Japan waste precious money to come all the way to Uganda just to look at thick black smoke rising from rows upon rows of factories?
Not surprising, therefore, Tororo MP Sanjay Tanna was quoted as saying that the Asian communities are opposed to the tearing down of Mabira forest.
Indeed, the proposed giveaway of Mabira has generated fury similar to those experienced elsewhere around the globe where conservation has clashed with exploitative development.
For example, one of the largest mass civil disobedience in recent Canadian history was the June to October 1993 protest against the logging of trees in Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island, on Canada’s west coast. Clayoquot Sound is the largest area of ancient temperate rainforest left on the island, where trees as old as 1,500 years old can grow over 15 feet in diameter. In 1993 Canadians from coast to coast were galvanized when the government announced that two-thirds of the Sound would open to logging by a company called Macmillan Bloedel (shortened to “MacBlo†by protesters who saw it as the very incarnation of evil exploitation).
During the more than 100 day protests, protesters from across Canada and the world converged on Clayoquot, some chaining themselves to trees to stop big machines from cutting down the trees. Over 900 people were arrested in Clayoquot Sound for defying court orders outlawing the blockading of logging roads.
Many were happy to go to jail for several months to protect this unique environmental treasure. Similar protests have been staged in Washington State, USA against tissue maker Kimberly-Clark’s for logging in boreal forests, in Brazil to protect the Amazon, in Europe and elsewhere where natural forests are in danger of disappearing in the face of growing demand for wood and land space.
What Uganda leaders including President Yoweri Museveni need to appreciate is that Mabira Forest has gained both real and symbolic meanings to every Ugandan irrespective of ethnicity, gender or politics. This beautiful ancient forest has come to symbolize uncorrupted national heritage of incalculable value. In the same manner one cannot put a price tag on the Amazon in South America, Black Forest in Germany, China’s Yangtze River and India’s Ganges river, one cannot put dollar figures on Mabira forest.
At the same time, the real meaning of Mabira to every Ugandan is very clear—in its pristine state as nature’s reserve, it belongs to every man, woman and child in the nation, from Arua to Kabale, from Mbale to Mbarara. As blighted plots for sugarcane, it is the private property of the few who will exploit it for personal profits. To paraphrase Robert F. Kennedy Jr. when he spoke about the Clayoquot Sound protests, those peacefully protesting the giveaway of Mabira Forest are asserting public ownership over resources which, under Uganda’s law, are owned by all Ugandans, but, in practice, are treated as the personal fiefdoms of a few giant companies.
In this case, it is the Mehta Group talking as if it owns Mabira Forest—It does not. Mabira Forest is worth protecting—peacefully.
Opiyo.oloya@sympatico.ca