Timber's unholy journey to the market

Nov 05, 2012

A few high-ranking Government officials and dealers have made huge profits from the increasing illegal trade in timber. But the residents around forests such as Budongo, who steal the timber and sell it to these dealers, are still wallowing in poverty

A few high-ranking Government officials and dealers have made huge profits from the increasing illegal trade in timber. But the residents around forests such as Budongo, who steal the timber and sell it to these dealers, are still wallowing in poverty, writes Gerald Tenywa 
 
After a 300km journey, northwest of Kampala, the dusty road narrows into a path as it ushers you into the sleepy Nyakafunjo village in Masindi district. 
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This is where I disembarked as the smoke-puking metallic monster, the boda-boda I had hired from Masindi, halted. 
It obliged and conquered the bushy paths that would have been difficult for a car to manoeuver. 
 
I was tracing the path for the most sought-after mahogany, a rare hardwood species that is cut in Budongo Forest Reserve and ferried to different parts of the country and neighbouring South Sudan and Kenya. 
 
In the shadows of the towering trees, the crumbling grass-thatched houses and children with distended abdomens typify the poverty living next to the wealth of the 825-sq.km Budongo with the precious mahogany trees. This, according to my guide, was seen as God’s gift to Masindi, but now it has become an asset for modern day pillage. 
 
“It is not that the youth in this village want to cut down trees,” says Moses Andama, a resident in the village. “There is too much poverty in this village and the people are unemployed. So, they go to the forest, which has turned into their garden to harvest something to eat.” 
 
A stream of smoke is visible in the forest, which my guide tells me, is an indicator that there were illegal loggers in that part of the forest. He advised me to disguise myself as a buyer of timber if I wanted to get to where they were working.
 
I obliged and moved with him deeper into the forest. After two hours of hiking and jumping over slippery logs felled by strong winds, I nearly gave up, but the sound of power chainsaws in the distance gave me the impetus to move on. 
 
My entry into the illegal timber trade was not that easy in an area well-guarded by two bare-chested men. I only survived by a whisker. On seeing me, one of the two illegal loggers rushed for his sword and charged at me. 
 
My guide calmed him down before he went behind the wrecked site, littered with logs and rested on one of the logs, perhaps to recover. Apart from his questioning look, he gave away so little, even when he was told that I was a timber trader. 
 
The place looked like a devil’s workshop. I smelt death and kept on thinking about two incidents in Sango Bay, Masaka and Mukono in which forest officials perished at the hands of timber-thirsty traders. I felt like crying after seeing the wreckage of trees in one of Uganda’s most treasured forests, which an estimated 800 chimps call home.
 
Selling mahogany for beer & salt 
 
For all this laborious work of cutting down the trees, splitting the logs into timber, which takes days, carrying it out of the forest and the risk, of  the timber cutters earn barely enough to buy salt, soap and beer. 
 
“The youth get some little money, which seems like a lot to them because they can use it to buy a few essentials,” says the guide, adding that they also gang up with other youth and patronise the drinking places for days, until the money is gone. 
 
Asked why Budongo Forest is at the mercy of the young men in the village, the guide says the youth do not own any land and that most of the land is under plantations of sugarcane and tobacco. So, the easy way out for the youth to meet their material needs is to forage on the forest. 
 
He adds: “The local people do not care about the negative effects of their actions because they see the forest every day and do not realise that it will one day disappear.”
 
As the illegal timber leaves for the urban centres where it rakes in billions of shillings, the businessmen and transporters have a way of buying themselves out of trouble when they are intercepted by Government officials.
 
This, according to a report by Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE), includes bribing policemen, forestry officials or using highly placed people in Government to protect them. 
 
A survey conducted by ACODE in a recent report estimates that the timber cutters retain less than 2% of the proceeds and pit sawyers get about 3%, while the transporters take 4% of the earnings. 
 
By contrast, according to ACODE’s report, middlemen make 28% and Kampala traders take the lion’s share of 34%. The private forest owners share 21% and individuals who sell trees get 6%. Other actors take the remaining 4%. 
 
While the rural poor earn least out of the timber, the middlemen get a bigger reward without owning the timber or adding value to it. Instead, they control the trade through their access to market information and credit and their connections or relations with other actors (including law enforcement personnel), according to ACODE’s report. 
 
Forestry officials threatened 
 
Boaz Odoi, who is the manager of Budongo, was given a rude reception, with death threats made by illegal loggers a few days after he was deployed to Masindi. He did not give up, but anonymous text messages warning him of an impending sacking, like they did in the case of Deus Irumba, his predecessor, persisted.  
 
“Odoi you think the forest is yours, we can make you leave that work. If you want to know more, ask Irumba, the former sector manager and he was a Munyoro,” reads one of the messages sent to his mobile phone. Deus Irumba was a sector manager who rose through the ranks, but resigned and now works with the civil society.   
 
Odoi says the moment they send the messages, they switch off their phones and in many cases they also call and issue death threats. But Odoi will not to give up. At one time, they even attempted to break into his office located at Nyabyeya Forestry College, but they failed. So he is always watching his back. 
 
Other officials of the National Forestry Authority (NFA), according to Odoi, have been beaten up and Government property, including motorcycles and vehicles, vandalised.
 
“I have been lucky because they have not beaten me, but most of the rangers have sustained injuries and they now fear to patrol certain parts of the forest,” he says. “My life is in danger because illegal loggers keep on sending threatening messages to my phone.” 
 
Politicians, Police speak out 
 
The LC3 chairperson for Pakanyi sub-county, William Kyomya, says he gave up dealing in timber because of harassment. “I gave up trade in timber three years ago because I was being harassed,” he told Saturday Vision in an interview.  
 
Masindi District Police Commander Juma Okungo says: “I am new in this place and I do not know anything about Kyomya’s former timber operations.” 
 
Asked about a case in which Akim Kabagambe, a timber dealer, last month accused the Police of extortion, Okungo told Saturday Vision that the allegation against two Policemen had resulted into a charge. But Akim withdrew the case and wants the State Attorney to drop it. 
 
“He accused the Policemen of demanding for money by menace,” says Okungo. 
He adds: “We have reduced cases of environmental abuse. What we need is the support of the local people, if they are pro-conservation, the forests will survive and if they bring in politics, they will disappear.” 
 
In a separate interview, Gonza who is the acting NFA’s spokesperson says the penalties for people found participating in illegal timber deals include confiscation of the timber, a fine may be imposed and a prison sentence not exceeding three years. The illegal timber is auctioned by NFA at Bugolobi in Kampala.   
 
 
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Where does the timber pass to reach the Kampala market?
 
Illegal timber is mostly transported at night. This, according to a prominent timber trader, helps to ferry the timber when the people who watch for illegal activities are fewer on the road. Also, sacks of maize and sometimes firewood are placed on top to conceal the timber. 
 
Sources say the preferred timber is mahogany from Budongo and Bugoma (in Masindi) forests. The two forests are home to endangered chimps and the Nahan’s Francolin bird.
 
On the way to Kampala, the timber stops at a number of road blocks mounted by the Police, sometimes in the company of forestry officials. Last week, Masindi-Kampala road had 10 roadblocks and Kyejonjo-Kampala had seven.
 
This, according to a dealer who preferred to remain anonymous, is where they pay bribes ranging from Sh50,000 to Sh500,000 at each stop over. At the moment, the bulk of the timber is felled in Kibaale and Kyenjojo districts. 
 
In research undertaken recently by the Department of International Aid, the organisation’s official, Davidson Madira, says they discovered most the timber from forests on private land and Government-run reserves such as Budongo Forest goes to Sudan. He says it is ferried through Gulu and Nimule to South Sudan. 
 
“This is happening, yet it is against the law to export timber,” says Madira, adding that Uganda has a timber shortage. “The illegal timber traders do not pay taxes because exports go tax free. In some cases, the dealers pay some money to the districts who clear the timber, but the traders under declare the amount of timber.” 
 
How Policemen pocket money from illegal timber dealers
 
At Kafu Bridge in Nakasongola district, there was an incident in which the driver folded money and dropped it down on the roadside after being flagged down by a Policeman. When the Policeman noticed the folded notes lying on the tarmac he waved on the truck carrying the timber, without checking.
 
This, according to sources, was a regular trafficker known to the Policemen, who has probably agreed on the amount he has to pay each time he ferries timber across River Kafu.
 
Police spokesperson Judith Nabakooba said this is a matter that deals with the environment and referred Saturday Vision to Idhwege Taire, the commandant of the Environment Protection Force.  
 
“Police road blocks have nothing do with timber,” said Taire, adding that NFA spent a long time without an executive director, which has created a mess. “NFA has been the sick man of the environment sector, but now they have a head and we are going to rectify the situation.” 
 
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trueLack of benefits sharing scheme to blame
 
Achilles Byaruhanga, the head of Nature Uganda, says previously, forests were looked at as Government business.
 
This is changing, with the local communities getting involved, but timber, which is the most valuable resource from the forest reserves, is not shared with the communities. 
 
“They may not have all the revenue from the timber, but sharing of revenue creates appreciation,” says Byaruhanga, adding that communities are likely to promote sustainable use of the environment if they feel that they partly own the resource. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
With the bigger rewards going to the middlemen in Kampala, the extraction of timber is likely to result into plunder of the precious forests such as Budongo. “If there is no forest, there is nothing to share,” says Byaruhanga. “Sharing benefits should be tilted in the favour of the local people in order to promote sustainable use of the environment.
 
Only then will Budongo continue to survive while helping communities to harvest its wealth and provide rain.” 
 
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The law on forestry
 
The governing law for the forestry sector is the National Forestry and Tree Planting Act, 2003. It divides the sector into five different forest managers; National Forestry Authority (NFA) to manage the central forest reserves, the District Forestry Services responsible for the local government forests/local forest reserves, community forests managed by the community and forests on private land by the private land owners. 
 
The Act also established a Forest Inspection Division (forestry sector support department) to provide support to both the NFA and the District Forest Services.
 
 
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Quick facts..
 
4.9 million
 
The hectares covered by forest and woodlands in Uganda, accounting for about 24% of the total land area 
 
The total forest reserve area, of which 99.6 % is under the Central Forest Reserves while 0.4% is on Local Forest Reserves 
 
19%- The percentage of woodland of the total land area
 
1,277,684 hectares
 

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