Buggala Island: Riding on culture to preserve nature

trueLake Victoria is under threat and the very people this water source is supposed to serve are the ones threatening its existence. Until World Environment Day, June 5, in a campaign, Save Lake Victoria, Vision Group media platforms will run investigative articles, programmes and commentaries highlighting the irresponsible human activities threatening the world’s largest fresh water lake.

BY GERALD TENYWA

I walked into Buggala Island in Lake Victoria unware that it had many hidden treasures. Buggala plays host to Buganda’s sacred trees that remain standing in the face of massive deforestation and siltation of the lake. It is also where expansive growing of palm trees has led to decimation of forests along with it the indigenous trees.

However, while deforestation is going on to pave way for palm oil growing, Buganda’s sacred tree keepers have ensured that a portion of the island that has some of the most important culturally-sensitive indigenous tree species are not touched.

“It would tantamount to selling our souls if we allowed the growing of palm trees over the forest with a rich cultural heritage. Every time the Kabaka appoints a new prime minister, a tree is cut from this forest and handed over as a symbol of power,” Omutaka Segaluma, the custodian of the forest explains.

Segaluma is a living testimony that money cannot buy everything. Although palm trees dominate Buggala’s landscape, it has failed to swallow the forest patch in Segaluma’s hands.

For centuries, the forest has been a source of Damula, the Katikkiro’s (prime minister’s symbol of power).

It was handed over to Segaluma many years ago. He does not want to disappoint his forefathers and the kingship. So he intends to pass it on to his children with hope that they will do the same.

Segaluma says the forest is on his land, but a heritage for Buganda.
“Who told you about this forest? Why do you want to write about it?” he asks suspiciously.

His neighbours say Segaluma guards the forest with a lot of zeal as if under divine order. “Everybody knows about this forest,” says Emmanuel Kasagga, a resident of Buswa village, Mugoye sub county in Kalangala district.

He adds that nobody is allowed to cut trees from Kabaka’s forest. It is an important source of firewood and people respect it.

“It is only witchdoctors who used to take people to the forest and bathe in its stream. They believe that the water from the stream is a source of power,” Kasagga adds.

However, this practice was seen as desecration of the revered forest and has been stopped with the warning erected at the entrance of the forest.

Apart from the stream from the forest which flows into Lake Victoria, a short distance away, the forest has old trees used as nesting grounds for hornbills. Others pick herbs from the lakeshore forest covering two acres.

Buggala is one of the most abundantly gifted places on the face of the earth but under its belt is the worst deforestation rate in Uganda. The country’s deforestation rate is estimated at 92,000 hectares every year and this is described globally as one of the highest.

Indigenous knowledge important for conservation
Whether beliefs are true or not, according to Dr. Daniel Babikwa, the environment and education coordinator at the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), they help to shape society and what it values or practices.

Babikwa, who spent his childhood on Buggala Island, says it was a taboo to go out fishing during moonlight because it was believed Mukasa, the god of the lake was also out on the lake fishing.

This, according to Babikwa means that fishermen used to stay on the lake, for only two weeks in a month. Such beliefs regulated access allowing fish to breed and replenish the lake. “It was not easy getting into the lake because there were so many taboos that shaped the attitude and practices of the fishermen,” says Babikwa, adding the population is increasing and economic pressures are driving depletion of the lake.

Lost and found
Dr. Arthur Mugisha, the head of Flora and Fauna International (Uganda), faulted the colonialists for leaving out culture in the creation of the protected areas. “People should be at the centre of conservation,” he says.

Mugisha adds that the colonialists were led only by the ecological values and feared that the Africans would hunt down the animals into extinction. But what they forgot was that, over decades, the local people related to nature not through science. “This is what we are beginning to understand–culture has a strong linkage to conservation and where the culture is strong, people still have animals.

In urban areas, people worship economic values and this is why wetlands in Kampala city are being reclaimed. We have put economics ahead but this has failed conservation,” he says.

At last year’s summit on development and environment in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, it was noted that the expenditure on environment management was increasing, but the natural ecological systems were getting eroded more than ever before. Could the integration of culture into conservation be the missing link?

“We would not be spending as much money on policing the protected areas if the local people were actively involved. The local people know the wrongdoers,” Mugisha explains.

Elsewhere, in the Indian Ocean island of Pemba, the locals preserve trees in areas they bury their dead. The endangered flying fox that was becoming extinct because of its shrinking habitat has found a home in the burial grounds.

In Nepal, there is a reserve, which is managed by the local people using their cultural values and practices.

Lake Victoria to get community protected areas
Given that the Uganda Wildlife Act provides for creation of community protected areas, Mugisha is proposing creation of community protected areas, which have never taken effect. How different is this from the protected areas such as national parks and forest reserves?

“Community protected areas build on the local values and institutions without deploying rangers,” Mugisha says.

He adds that they have started riding on culture to create community protected areas around Lake Victoria.

“It is about securing the consent of the people. We need to identify the areas with rich bio-diversity and strong cultural attachments and institutions.” he says.

He points out that Kabaka’s forest on Buggala is one of the places earmarked as a community protected area. The other areas are Sango Bay and Musambwa Island, which is one of the largest roosting grounds for migratory species of birds.

At Kisumu, Chris Owalla from the Community Initiative Action Group agrees with Mugisha pointing out that culture could contribute to sustainable use of the environment, but it is still undermined.

“Culture is still very relevant especially in Kenya now with the coming of the new constitution that allow land to be registered into the community name, but the biggest challenge to culture in the education from the west which is looking at it from negative angle,” he says.

Long ignored, Mugisha believes the lessons at Musambwa Island will resurrect culture and rekindle conservation of the lake in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.

Do you have any views on how to save Lake Victoria? Do you know of any harmful human practices affecting the lake? Write to the Features Editor, P.O Box 9815, Kampala, or email: features@newvision.co.ug or call 0312337000 or you can catch us on facebook @ www.facebook.com/SaveLakeVictoriaCampaign, Twitter @LKVictoria and http://www.newvision.co.ug/section/53-471-save-lake-victoria.html