Politics, corruption fuelling destruction of forest reserves

Nov 02, 2008

PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni recently said he was concerned about the rampant destruction of forests in the country. <br>

By Gerald Tenywa

PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni recently said he was concerned about the rampant destruction of forests in the country.

Speaking during the Ninth President’s Export Award at Imperial Royale Hotel last month, Museveni emphasised Government’s regulation of various sectors of the economy as a solution to the economic meltdown that has rocked the US and Europe and said he would sort out NFA’s complacence.

“National Forest Authority (NFA’s) name should be changed to National Deforestation Authority because they don’t care about forests. But we shall sort them out,” Museveni warned.

“You cannot have investment without regulation of the environment. The telecom sector is doing well because there is regulation. The same thing should happen in other sectors.”

This sums up what the president is thinking, say environmental activists under the Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE). They also say the attack is unfair.

The National Forestry Authority manages a small part of the forests. “It is true that deforestation is taking place, but much of it is affecting forests on private land,” says Moses Watasa, the public relations manager of NFA. “The mandate of NFA is restricted to forest reserves.”

Over 70% of the forest cover is located on private land, which is supposed to be managed by private land owners and the district forestry services.

NFA manages only 15% of the forests and the remaining 15% are under the Uganda Wildlife Authority.

The District Forest Services, which was supposed to be a sister institution to NFA, has remained crippled due to lack of funding. In addition, the Government’s re-structuring process has not embraced it.

The forestry support services department is supposed to be the overseer of the NFA and the District Forestry Services.

However, the forests on private land are like ‘orphans’ without a sound caretaker. The owners of such forests have a good excuse to cut them down.

They consider forests a hideout for vermin such as monkeys and baboons. In order to get meaningful harvests, they have to get rid of the primates by cutting down the trees.

Cultivators believe the land under forests is fertile. This could be a false impression. “The forest soil has a thin layer of fertility, which is lost fast once it is exposed to rain
and sunlight,” says Fred Babwetera, a lecturer at the Makerere University Faculty of Forestry and Nature Conservation.

“It is important for the agriculture policies to stop fuelling forest destruction and help farmers to nurture soil and use it in a more productive manner.”

Also owners of forests on private land have realised that charcoal and firewood sell like hot-cakes so they prefer to cut them down to satisfy energy-thirsty urban residents especially in Kampala.

As forests on private land get depleted, the pressure on the protected forest reserves is also mounting, says Watasa.

NFA trapped between politics and conservation obligations
It is now three years since the question of encroachers became a national talking point, but it is yet to be settled. The issue has claimed a fair share of casusalties and could claim more.

When the NFA was created, the biggest issue on its agenda was to evict encroachers from the forest reserves.

To pave way for eviction, the forestry body undertook a census that put the number of encroachers at 180,000 and also established the kind of activities they were undertaking in the forest.

Three years ago, the President issued an executive order halting evictions of encroachers. Since that time the encroachers have been increasing and their population is estimated at 300,000, Watasa says.

“The biggest challenge we have in the Government forest reserves is
encroachment,” he says. “The local people have discovered that it is possible to trade their votes in exchange for land under protected areas.”

Once the encroachers are in the forest, Watasa points out, survival by cultivating and cutting trees either for timber or charcoal becomes the order of the day.

“When we go against the encroachers, politicians and businessmen who deal in items like timber resist us,” says Watasa. “It has got to an extent where NFA officials have been assaulted in the process of securing the forests.”

The president’s order has, in a way, legalised the stay of the encroachers. “They think that by having the executive order they are well protected,” says Watasa.

In Kiboga district, encroachers have formed an organisation, Kiboga Encroachers Association and are destroying the forests with impunity.

“They simply wave the executive order at us and have become untouchable,” says Watasa.
We attempted to talk to their leaders, but as soon as our backs were turned, they started from where they had left off, he says, adding that Siraji Nkugwa, the Kiboga district chairperson, recently vowed to order the stoning of anyone who intervened to stop encroachment.

Opposition politicians speak out
The Kitgum woman MP and FDC shadow minister for environment, Beatrice Anywar says the law should take its course. “Politicians are engaged in double standards. That is what brings down institutions, making them irrelevant,” she says.

“Museveni does not recognise institutions; I will insist that institutions should carry out their mandate without undue pressure.”
In the budgeting process, environment management is given the smallest part of the cake, Anywar says.

“We need to sustain the environment because it supports other sectors of development. But the little funding is letting down the institutions.”

However, NFA is not without blemish, Anywar says. “A culture of corruption is flourishing in this country,” says Anywar. “Some officials are given small things to turn a blind eye.”
She says there are two battles to fight; the corruption within the environmental institutions and double standards exhibited by politicians.

Museveni’s political manifesto
“The Government road map in regard to the environment is to enforce deliberate policy to effect afforestation on all bare hills in the country in a bid to protect the environment.

Schools, as a matter of policy, should engage in tree planting to protect the environment and supplement their wood fuel needs. School children should be active participants in tree planting.” So reads the President’s manifesto.

“We are getting some money from the United Nations Environment Programme to undertake re-forestation of bare hills,” says the environment state minister, Jessica Eriyo.

“This is being done with the help of the communities.” Although most of the hills are still without trees, Eriyo cites Ntungamo district as one of the areas where the Government’s efforts have had an impact.
The issue of encroachment is like a hot potato in the mouth. This is one of the issues Museveni committed himself to sort out.

“The evictions from forest reserves, however, shall be suspended until the review of the entire policy on forest reserves has been completed. What were these forests for? Were they for ecological resources or only a source of fuel and timber? Where a forest reserve is for ecological reasons it must be upheld.

If it was, on the other hand, merely for wood and timber, there is need for more flexibility,” states the manifesto.

The effects of destroying forests
Watasa says most of the forests being cut down are catchment forests. They either shelter streams, rivers or banks of lakes such as Victoria.

“Their destruction is likely to cause siltation of lakes and curtail the productivity of fisheries, hydro-electric power generation. Rain-fed agriculture will also be undermined,”he says.

A politician who preferred anonymity says : “The Government is failing to tell people the truth.” It is like having a wound with flies hovering over it and you keep chasing them by waving your hand.

But if you give up and let nature to take its course, the flies will eat the flesh and the bone marrow.

“We must never give up fighting corruption and self-seekers,” says another politician.

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