Development should not affect forests
Jan 14, 2008
THE debate on whether to conserve natural forests or clear them for investment and development projects is intensifying. At the recent international conference on climate change in Bali, Indonesia, there were proposals to look beyond development and commit more resources towards environment and fore
By Moses Watasa
THE debate on whether to conserve natural forests or clear them for investment and development projects is intensifying. At the recent international conference on climate change in Bali, Indonesia, there were proposals to look beyond development and commit more resources towards environment and forest conservation.
Land, a key factor of production, is in fixed supply but there is increasing demand for it for settlement and investment projects. This has often caused friction between development planners and environmentalists.
The latter have described planners as inhuman capitalists destroying the environment, while development planners feel environmentalists are enemies of development.
How do developing countries like Uganda industrialise and transform their economies in the wake of increasing calls for conservation of forests to mitigate global warming?
Sustainable development, a development paradigm that makes the case for maximising the benefits of investment while minimising environmental degradation, is the way to go.
Credible development projects should have comprehensive guidelines on environmental conservation. Projects should be subjected to Environmental Impact Assessments to mitigate degradation. There are conservation eco-systems that must remain intact because of their role in life-supporting systems. Substantial forest cover is a proven ingredient in stabilising temperatures and climate.
Trees suck-up large quantities of carbon-dioxide, a main contributor to global warming and hazard to numerous eco-systems.
Uganda’s forest reserves were gazetted around strategic locations like mountains, water bodies and areas with unique vegetation and wildlife species.
Forests cannot be transferred because they are associated with these permanent features that cannot be replicated. Forests must cover a significant portion of the country to be effective in their natural safe-guard duty. Uganda’s declining current forest-cover now about 22% of the land area compares poorly with other developing countries like Cameroon (47%) and Tanzania (45%).
Development projects should, therefore, not pause a serious threat to the declining forest cover in Uganda. There are non-destructive investments that can be undertaken within and around forests like tree-planting, eco-tourism, research and bee-keeping. Such ventures have potentially lucrative returns but are friendly to conservation of the environment and forests.
Climate-related negative effects of deforestation unfolding in Uganda have already had a retrogressive impact on production.
In parts of Teso, citizens are still grappling with food shortage and the after-affects of the floods that ravaged the area recently. Shortage of water and pasture in the cattle-keeping Karamoja sub-region has often precipitated a warrior exodus into neighbouring districts, triggering vicious cattle raids, murder and mass displacement of people.
In a country largely agro-based, such disruptions paralyse crop and animal supplies that are important raw materials for various industries. With the persistent encroachment on central forest reserves and rapid depletion of trees on private land, erratic weather is likely to get worse and could be replicated in other parts of Uganda.
Mitigating and reversing this climate trend requires improving planning to maximise investment while conserving forests and the environment.
On December 3, 2007, the Government launched a $653m Natural Resources Sector Investment Plan. It seeks to increase forest cover to 30% of the land area by 2012. The plan is ambitious but if implemented, it will buttress efforts towards stabilising temperature and climate. This will in turn be a vital ingredient for sustainable agricultural and industrial production and for posterity.
The writer is the spokesperson of the National Forestry Authority
THE debate on whether to conserve natural forests or clear them for investment and development projects is intensifying. At the recent international conference on climate change in Bali, Indonesia, there were proposals to look beyond development and commit more resources towards environment and forest conservation.
Land, a key factor of production, is in fixed supply but there is increasing demand for it for settlement and investment projects. This has often caused friction between development planners and environmentalists.
The latter have described planners as inhuman capitalists destroying the environment, while development planners feel environmentalists are enemies of development.
How do developing countries like Uganda industrialise and transform their economies in the wake of increasing calls for conservation of forests to mitigate global warming?
Sustainable development, a development paradigm that makes the case for maximising the benefits of investment while minimising environmental degradation, is the way to go.
Credible development projects should have comprehensive guidelines on environmental conservation. Projects should be subjected to Environmental Impact Assessments to mitigate degradation. There are conservation eco-systems that must remain intact because of their role in life-supporting systems. Substantial forest cover is a proven ingredient in stabilising temperatures and climate.
Trees suck-up large quantities of carbon-dioxide, a main contributor to global warming and hazard to numerous eco-systems.
Uganda’s forest reserves were gazetted around strategic locations like mountains, water bodies and areas with unique vegetation and wildlife species.
Forests cannot be transferred because they are associated with these permanent features that cannot be replicated. Forests must cover a significant portion of the country to be effective in their natural safe-guard duty. Uganda’s declining current forest-cover now about 22% of the land area compares poorly with other developing countries like Cameroon (47%) and Tanzania (45%).
Development projects should, therefore, not pause a serious threat to the declining forest cover in Uganda. There are non-destructive investments that can be undertaken within and around forests like tree-planting, eco-tourism, research and bee-keeping. Such ventures have potentially lucrative returns but are friendly to conservation of the environment and forests.
Climate-related negative effects of deforestation unfolding in Uganda have already had a retrogressive impact on production.
In parts of Teso, citizens are still grappling with food shortage and the after-affects of the floods that ravaged the area recently. Shortage of water and pasture in the cattle-keeping Karamoja sub-region has often precipitated a warrior exodus into neighbouring districts, triggering vicious cattle raids, murder and mass displacement of people.
In a country largely agro-based, such disruptions paralyse crop and animal supplies that are important raw materials for various industries. With the persistent encroachment on central forest reserves and rapid depletion of trees on private land, erratic weather is likely to get worse and could be replicated in other parts of Uganda.
Mitigating and reversing this climate trend requires improving planning to maximise investment while conserving forests and the environment.
On December 3, 2007, the Government launched a $653m Natural Resources Sector Investment Plan. It seeks to increase forest cover to 30% of the land area by 2012. The plan is ambitious but if implemented, it will buttress efforts towards stabilising temperature and climate. This will in turn be a vital ingredient for sustainable agricultural and industrial production and for posterity.
The writer is the spokesperson of the National Forestry Authority