You could be jailed for cutting a tree in your compound

Cutting trees either in public domain or private compound without the approval of Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) will lead to sh40,000 or six months in prison or both if the new KCCA bill of Kampala City Green Infrastructure ordinance is passed.

"We are proposing that no tree in a private land shall be cut without the approval of the city authority, once you've planted a tree, it ceases to be a private property, there are punishments for cutting a tree in your own compound," Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago said.

This was revealed last week in Kampala during the climate change stakeholders' event organized by Plan International and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Lukwago noted that the formulation of Kampala City Green Infrastructure ordinance came up after realizing that the city was losing many trees.

"We embarked on the process of formulating an ordinance to have trees protected," he noted.

He said that so far, they have registered 53,000 trees from Makerere, Mulago, and Kololo, with three to five trees covering an acre, yet the target should be 20 to 30 trees per acre.  

He noted that the audit is aimed at finding the percentage coverage of Kampala city with green cover and trees.

The bill seeks to provide for the management and control of urban green infrastructure within the city of Kampala.

According to clause 11 of the bill, no tree on public or private land shall be cut in Kampala without a permit or approval from the authority.

The bill also seeks to have people who intend to cut any tree, transplant or remove any tree or construct any structure around the tree or inside the drip line of the tree will have to apply to the authority for approval.

The bill also states that failure to adhere to these ordinances according to clause 16 commits an offence and is liable to conviction.

Jacob Etunganan, the climate change manager at WWF, said activities such as charcoal burning, cutting trees, are destroying the environment.

The event gathered youth, teachers, and pupils of schools from Kawempe division who are participating in our city 2030 project to influence decision-makers to make commitments and actions towards having climate-resilient and sustainable cities.