Who should protect Budongo forest?
Dec 04, 2008
LAST week, the National Forestry Authority (NFA) sector manager for Budongo forest quit citing violation of the NFA core values. <b> Gerald Tenywa</b> went to Biiso, one of the areas in the 825 square kilometre forest reserve where illegal pitsawying of mahogany is going unabetted and now writes.
LAST week, the National Forestry Authority (NFA) sector manager for Budongo forest quit citing violation of the NFA core values. Gerald Tenywa went to Biiso, one of the areas in the 825 square kilometre forest reserve where illegal pitsawying of mahogany is going unabetted and now writes.
IT feels like a walk into the heart of darkness, sheltered by century-old mahogany trees. For 30-year Paul Mugabi, my guide and a resident of Kanyege village, the towering mahogany trees are treasures since his ancestors spared them.
His sentiments are shared by thousands of environmentalists who say Budongo is part of the world famous Ituri forest that covers larger parts of eastern DR Congo. It also contains endangered species including chimpanzees and nahan’s francolin, a rare bird species.
But Mugabi feels like a lonely traveller in taking local action to save this natural heritage. He says government officials have consistently turned a deaf ear to reports of illegal logging.
“This is becoming a matter of concern and something should be done,†says Mugabi. “It is a shame that when we report illegal loggers sneaking into the forest, the forestry officials only respond days after timber has been cut and removed.â€
In reaction to the queries, officials of the national forestry authority attribute the delayed interventions to shortage of manpower and inadequate facilities.
“We have had running battles with pitsawyers over illegal harvesting of trees in Budongo,†says Deziderius Irumba, the manager of the 825 square kilometre Budongo forest.
However, he resigned from the post on October 31, citing violation of the core values and objectives of NFA.
Irumba, who was based at Nyabyeya, says one of their encounters ended up with the arrest of some pitsawyers, who unfortunately, were released from Police custody a few days later.
“However, there are cases when we cannot intervene in good time because we lack means of transport to get to the affected areas,†he says.
The rich timber dealers have earned the name “Tagiri†meaning rich man in the local language. The poor locals known as “fundis†spend days in camps working deep in the forest. They cut down huge trees and later smuggle the timber out of the forest. The timber dealers then take it to either Kampala or West Nile and Southern Sudan.
But it is only the rich men that earn as much as sh10m from a single mahogany tree. The “fundis†walk away with about sh2,000 per day. The deal is seen as a good source of money to survive since many of the local people are tobacco farmers.
“The money is little, but it keeps many people going,†says Mugabi.
Back at Nyabyeya where the seat of the National Forestry Authority (NFA) is located, the pit sawyers give the managers of the expansive forest sleepless night.
Condemned by environmentalists, felling of mahogany is motivated by the booming demand for hardwood that make highly valued timber.
The building boom has drastically increased the use of the treasured trees. Consequently, they have become scarce.
According to the tree-planting and forestry Act, it is illegal to fell trees in a protected area without permission.
Prior to the creation of new forestry body, the colonial forestry department was also engaged in running battles with the pit sawyers. The rackets of illegal loggers would sometimes sneak into the forest. They would work day and night.
In some cases, foresters would mount operations after gathering intelligence information about the works of illegal pitsawyers. But they would run away, leaving behind the felled trees, which the foresters christened ‘abandoned logs.’
The pit sawyers would then re-group and start working stealthily in another part of the forest, to avoid the eagle-eyed patrol men watching over the forest.
This way, Irumba says, the abandoned logs accumulated in the forest. So when the NFA was created three years ago, the issue of clearing the logs had to be settled, since valuable timber could be got from the abandoned logs.
Another reason was that hardcore pitsawyers would still come back to the forest and convert the abandoned logs.
“It was necessary to keep them out of the forest by removing all the logs,†says Irumba.
In a letter dated September 12, 2007, Damian Akankwasa, the executive director of the national forestry authority, offered Aziz Mugisa, a private timber dealer, the abandoned logs hoping it would put the matter to rest.
However, the illegal harvesting of timber in Biiso block has increased and the NFA has not realised as much revenue to match the logs being removed.
“Two groups of Mugisa’s workers were found converting trees illegally felled but not officially graded or offered to the licensee,†stated a report of June 12 compiled by Irumba.
“Farther information indicates that Mugisa’s workers were themselves illegally cutting and stealing the timber for sale to other illegal timber dealers at night.â€
According to Akankwasa, the NFA’s sector manager for Budongo should have supervised the removal of the logs.
However, an internal communication from the patrol men in Biiso to the sector manager, indicated that Mugisa was a difficult person to work with.
“This letter serves to inform you that Mugisa is very hard to work with,†says Herbert Turyahabwa, the caretaker for Biiso area within NFA. “He (the husband of Mugisa) almost directed me to measure for him green logs and I suspect that Mugisa is behind illegal cutting of these new trees,†the letter stated.
He threatened the NFA staff, that he could uproot some of them from work.
But when The New Vision contacted Mugisa for a comment, she instead accused the NFA field officers of malpractice.
“They are crucifying me because I know all their dirty games,†she says. “The good thing is that I have been reporting to Akankwasa.â€
One of the challenges of protecting richly endowed forests like Budongo is the ease with which trees can be turned into money.
According to a research report entitled ‘Wealth distribution, poverty and timber governance in Uganda’ undertaken by the Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE), the local populace benefit least from timber. The local people do the bulk of the work, but the middlemen in Masindi and Kampala rip them off.
“We think the Government should come up with programmes that help the local people to benefit more from natural resources management,†says ACODE’s Sophie Kutegeka.
“The local people will not participate in the sustainable use of nature unless they benefit.â€
So, what can be done?
The National Forestry Authority should work together with the civil society to empower communities to promote a sustainable use of Budongo forest.
The local people should be allowed to extract raw materials like medicinal plants and handicrafts.
This should be accompanied with enterprises like bee-keeping and the sale of tree seedlings to give local people more options for survival.
The authority should start a tree-planting campaign, with the civil society, to replace the trees that are cut down
In addition, the forestry body should avoid giving concessions selectively to particular individuals. “The people who engage in illegal activities are benefiting more than the law-abiding citizens and this is unfair,†says Mugabi, “We hope justice will be done.â€
IT feels like a walk into the heart of darkness, sheltered by century-old mahogany trees. For 30-year Paul Mugabi, my guide and a resident of Kanyege village, the towering mahogany trees are treasures since his ancestors spared them.
His sentiments are shared by thousands of environmentalists who say Budongo is part of the world famous Ituri forest that covers larger parts of eastern DR Congo. It also contains endangered species including chimpanzees and nahan’s francolin, a rare bird species.
But Mugabi feels like a lonely traveller in taking local action to save this natural heritage. He says government officials have consistently turned a deaf ear to reports of illegal logging.
“This is becoming a matter of concern and something should be done,†says Mugabi. “It is a shame that when we report illegal loggers sneaking into the forest, the forestry officials only respond days after timber has been cut and removed.â€
In reaction to the queries, officials of the national forestry authority attribute the delayed interventions to shortage of manpower and inadequate facilities.
“We have had running battles with pitsawyers over illegal harvesting of trees in Budongo,†says Deziderius Irumba, the manager of the 825 square kilometre Budongo forest.
However, he resigned from the post on October 31, citing violation of the core values and objectives of NFA.
Irumba, who was based at Nyabyeya, says one of their encounters ended up with the arrest of some pitsawyers, who unfortunately, were released from Police custody a few days later.
“However, there are cases when we cannot intervene in good time because we lack means of transport to get to the affected areas,†he says.
The rich timber dealers have earned the name “Tagiri†meaning rich man in the local language. The poor locals known as “fundis†spend days in camps working deep in the forest. They cut down huge trees and later smuggle the timber out of the forest. The timber dealers then take it to either Kampala or West Nile and Southern Sudan.
But it is only the rich men that earn as much as sh10m from a single mahogany tree. The “fundis†walk away with about sh2,000 per day. The deal is seen as a good source of money to survive since many of the local people are tobacco farmers.
“The money is little, but it keeps many people going,†says Mugabi.
Back at Nyabyeya where the seat of the National Forestry Authority (NFA) is located, the pit sawyers give the managers of the expansive forest sleepless night.
Condemned by environmentalists, felling of mahogany is motivated by the booming demand for hardwood that make highly valued timber.
The building boom has drastically increased the use of the treasured trees. Consequently, they have become scarce.
According to the tree-planting and forestry Act, it is illegal to fell trees in a protected area without permission.
Prior to the creation of new forestry body, the colonial forestry department was also engaged in running battles with the pit sawyers. The rackets of illegal loggers would sometimes sneak into the forest. They would work day and night.
In some cases, foresters would mount operations after gathering intelligence information about the works of illegal pitsawyers. But they would run away, leaving behind the felled trees, which the foresters christened ‘abandoned logs.’
The pit sawyers would then re-group and start working stealthily in another part of the forest, to avoid the eagle-eyed patrol men watching over the forest.
This way, Irumba says, the abandoned logs accumulated in the forest. So when the NFA was created three years ago, the issue of clearing the logs had to be settled, since valuable timber could be got from the abandoned logs.
Another reason was that hardcore pitsawyers would still come back to the forest and convert the abandoned logs.
“It was necessary to keep them out of the forest by removing all the logs,†says Irumba.
In a letter dated September 12, 2007, Damian Akankwasa, the executive director of the national forestry authority, offered Aziz Mugisa, a private timber dealer, the abandoned logs hoping it would put the matter to rest.
However, the illegal harvesting of timber in Biiso block has increased and the NFA has not realised as much revenue to match the logs being removed.
“Two groups of Mugisa’s workers were found converting trees illegally felled but not officially graded or offered to the licensee,†stated a report of June 12 compiled by Irumba.
“Farther information indicates that Mugisa’s workers were themselves illegally cutting and stealing the timber for sale to other illegal timber dealers at night.â€
According to Akankwasa, the NFA’s sector manager for Budongo should have supervised the removal of the logs.
However, an internal communication from the patrol men in Biiso to the sector manager, indicated that Mugisa was a difficult person to work with.
“This letter serves to inform you that Mugisa is very hard to work with,†says Herbert Turyahabwa, the caretaker for Biiso area within NFA. “He (the husband of Mugisa) almost directed me to measure for him green logs and I suspect that Mugisa is behind illegal cutting of these new trees,†the letter stated.
He threatened the NFA staff, that he could uproot some of them from work.
But when The New Vision contacted Mugisa for a comment, she instead accused the NFA field officers of malpractice.
“They are crucifying me because I know all their dirty games,†she says. “The good thing is that I have been reporting to Akankwasa.â€
One of the challenges of protecting richly endowed forests like Budongo is the ease with which trees can be turned into money.
According to a research report entitled ‘Wealth distribution, poverty and timber governance in Uganda’ undertaken by the Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE), the local populace benefit least from timber. The local people do the bulk of the work, but the middlemen in Masindi and Kampala rip them off.
“We think the Government should come up with programmes that help the local people to benefit more from natural resources management,†says ACODE’s Sophie Kutegeka.
“The local people will not participate in the sustainable use of nature unless they benefit.â€
So, what can be done?
This should be accompanied with enterprises like bee-keeping and the sale of tree seedlings to give local people more options for survival.