Mabira give-away plan unsettles local community
THE Cabinet proposal to degazette part of Mabira forest for sugarcane growing has caused an uproar among Ugandans and environmentalists, but worse for the locals around the forest. It is a decision that will grossly affect their livelihoods.
By Richard Komakech
THE Cabinet proposal to degazette part of Mabira forest for sugarcane growing has caused an uproar among Ugandans and environmentalists, but worse for the locals around the forest. It is a decision that will grossly affect their livelihoods.
Kyobe Kaaso, the local council chairman for Najjembe village, has already warned his constituents to expect the worst if the proposal is sanctioned.
Kaaso has spent over 46 years of his life feeding and mobilising the community to help regenerate the forest.
“Giving away the forest hurts even before it is done. We just pray it never happens.
“The sugarcane plantation cannot be a special case because everyone else will flock here asking for a similar favour granted to the sugarcane grower and eventually, the whole forest will be gone,†Kaaso laments.
For Kaaso and his community, overall gains in terms of rainfall, climate control, pollution abatement and the emotional bond with the forest are more essential than the sugarcane plantations that the Sugar Corporation of Uganda Ltd wants to setup.
“Even the people in Kampala who make these decisions benefit from the presence of this forest in terms of rainfall and good weather,†Kaaso says with uncertainty, but quips that that is one of the things he has learnt from the forest authorities and conservationists.
Mabira forest was first gazetted as a forest reserve in 1932 with a total area of 29,592 hectares and is home to thousands of unique flora and fauna species. With the intervention of the Forestry Department, now the National Forestry Authority (NFA) in clearing the forest of encroachers in the early 1990s, Mabira is witnessing a resurgence of shrubs, tree species and regaining its once lost canopy.
Nowadays, the local people only have access rights to the forest to collect resources such as water, mushrooms, honey, medicinal plants, grass, animal grazing, firewood and raw materials for making local crafts.
Najjembe village recently hosted a team of international agricultural researchers and policy makers convened under Collective Action and Property Rights (CAPRi), a programme of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Among Kaaso’s constituents is a local burial association and a women’s art and crafts group that use the forest for their raw materials. A loose union of youth who sell roast chicken at the popular Najjembe stopover also pick from the forest, the sticks on which they dress the chicken.
The researchers were using the model of Kaaso’s village to study how efficient community involvement can be used in managing natural resources to fight poverty.
Like her area chairman, Janet Babbisewano wonders what would befall their communities. She is a member of a local burial association that supports its members financially and emotionally in cases of death and the association collects bark cloth, used for burial, firewood and roots for food at the funerals.
“This forest as a great resource for ourselves and generations to come. Our ancestors have depended and today we are doing the same, only that we are regulated and sensitised on using the forest wisely which we have done. But now, what happens if it goes into private hands,†she asks.
Leo Twinomuhangi, the NFA’s Mabira forest sector manager, says community collaboration in management of the forest has guaranteed the community the use of the natural resource sustainably without destroying it. “It is a common resource so we have partnered with the community so that we can all benefit from it. However, there is an ever present threat from the communities around and external factors like laws and government policies that are not sensitive to conservation of natural resources.
Among the communities’ benefits is an ecotourism centre organised under Mabira Forest Integrated Community Initiative (MAFICO) an affiliation of 72 community groups which have promoted sustainable utilisation through eco-tourism and environmental education for local schools and residents.
MAFICO whose programmes include running a local tourist camp, nature walks, encouraging bee keeping and helping communities build energy saving stoves to reduce dependence on firewood have recently attracted the attention of the UNDP who are funding the community’s eco-tourism projects through the Global Environment Facility.
You may think otherwise about the government’s direction on Mabira, but Kaaso may sum it better: “We know our country is poor but we need to have a more realistic approach to using our natural resources, especially when we have jealously guarded it.â€
THE Cabinet proposal to degazette part of Mabira forest for sugarcane growing has caused an uproar among Ugandans and environmentalists, but worse for the locals around the forest. It is a decision that will grossly affect their livelihoods.
Kyobe Kaaso, the local council chairman for Najjembe village, has already warned his constituents to expect the worst if the proposal is sanctioned.
Kaaso has spent over 46 years of his life feeding and mobilising the community to help regenerate the forest.
“Giving away the forest hurts even before it is done. We just pray it never happens.
“The sugarcane plantation cannot be a special case because everyone else will flock here asking for a similar favour granted to the sugarcane grower and eventually, the whole forest will be gone,†Kaaso laments.
For Kaaso and his community, overall gains in terms of rainfall, climate control, pollution abatement and the emotional bond with the forest are more essential than the sugarcane plantations that the Sugar Corporation of Uganda Ltd wants to setup.
“Even the people in Kampala who make these decisions benefit from the presence of this forest in terms of rainfall and good weather,†Kaaso says with uncertainty, but quips that that is one of the things he has learnt from the forest authorities and conservationists.
Mabira forest was first gazetted as a forest reserve in 1932 with a total area of 29,592 hectares and is home to thousands of unique flora and fauna species. With the intervention of the Forestry Department, now the National Forestry Authority (NFA) in clearing the forest of encroachers in the early 1990s, Mabira is witnessing a resurgence of shrubs, tree species and regaining its once lost canopy.
Nowadays, the local people only have access rights to the forest to collect resources such as water, mushrooms, honey, medicinal plants, grass, animal grazing, firewood and raw materials for making local crafts.
Najjembe village recently hosted a team of international agricultural researchers and policy makers convened under Collective Action and Property Rights (CAPRi), a programme of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Among Kaaso’s constituents is a local burial association and a women’s art and crafts group that use the forest for their raw materials. A loose union of youth who sell roast chicken at the popular Najjembe stopover also pick from the forest, the sticks on which they dress the chicken.
The researchers were using the model of Kaaso’s village to study how efficient community involvement can be used in managing natural resources to fight poverty.
Like her area chairman, Janet Babbisewano wonders what would befall their communities. She is a member of a local burial association that supports its members financially and emotionally in cases of death and the association collects bark cloth, used for burial, firewood and roots for food at the funerals.
“This forest as a great resource for ourselves and generations to come. Our ancestors have depended and today we are doing the same, only that we are regulated and sensitised on using the forest wisely which we have done. But now, what happens if it goes into private hands,†she asks.
Leo Twinomuhangi, the NFA’s Mabira forest sector manager, says community collaboration in management of the forest has guaranteed the community the use of the natural resource sustainably without destroying it. “It is a common resource so we have partnered with the community so that we can all benefit from it. However, there is an ever present threat from the communities around and external factors like laws and government policies that are not sensitive to conservation of natural resources.
Among the communities’ benefits is an ecotourism centre organised under Mabira Forest Integrated Community Initiative (MAFICO) an affiliation of 72 community groups which have promoted sustainable utilisation through eco-tourism and environmental education for local schools and residents.
MAFICO whose programmes include running a local tourist camp, nature walks, encouraging bee keeping and helping communities build energy saving stoves to reduce dependence on firewood have recently attracted the attention of the UNDP who are funding the community’s eco-tourism projects through the Global Environment Facility.
You may think otherwise about the government’s direction on Mabira, but Kaaso may sum it better: “We know our country is poor but we need to have a more realistic approach to using our natural resources, especially when we have jealously guarded it.â€