To kill Bugoma Forest is to bury Lake Albert

A chunk of Bugoma Central Forest Reserve is being cleared for sugarcane growing. There is no doubt this will bring jobs and some social services closer to the people. But the encroachment could start and soon the whole forest will be gone. Dire climate change consequences will follow. 



Bugoma Central Forest Reserve and Lake Albert are two interconnected ecological systems. The forest helps in the formation of rainfall around the lake - moisture evaporates and condenses to form rainfall. When it rains, the water flows into the lake.

"We get this rain because of Bugoma forest," Oketcho Ochombo, a lecturer at Gulu University and climate change scholar, says.  

Bugoma Central Forest Reserve, which covers parts of Kikuube and Hoima districts, gives life to Lake Albert, which is a source of water and fish for the population in Uganda and DR Congo.



The 41,000ha forest is a catchment (a source of water) for Lake Albert. The forest also contributes water to River Nguse, which crosses its southern boundary. It also feeds Wambabya and Waaki rivers.

The expansive forest also provides water to streams, including Hohwa, which have become seasonal because of the massive encroachment as well as illegal extraction of timber from the forest.

Dr Callist Tindimugaya, a commissioner in the Ministry of Water and Environment, says water is a finite resource and it is not limitless as some people think.

For Uganda's economy to thrive, adequate amounts of water should be available where it is needed and at the right time. The oil industry depends on water.

"Oil is a water-thirsty industry," says Tindimugaya, adding that oil will need large amounts of water to push it out of the ground. In addition, water will be required to clean out impurities from the oil, according to Tindimugaya.

The source of this water is going to be Lake Albert, which is a transboundary lake shared by Uganda and the DR Congo.  This, to water experts, including Tindimugaya, means that a few things in the western arm of the Rift Valley (Albertine Rift) are more urgent than securing the catchment of Lake Albert.

Already, the quality and quantity of water in the water bodies such as streams and rivers feeding Lake Albert have been declining over the years.

Jackson Wabyona, an environmentalist cum businessman and politician in Hoima, says all is not well. "The water in the streams and rivers has turned brown, meaning that they are suffering from heavy silting," Wabyona says, adding that the destruction of the catchment is taking a toll on the water bodies.

He also says some of the streams and rivers that used to flow throughout the year have become seasonal as a result of massive destruction of forests and wetlands in the catchment of the lake.

Wabyona adds that during the dry spell, what used to be mighty rivers thin out.  River Waaki, which crosses several districts in Bunyoro sub-region, Wabyona says, is one of the rivers that have suffered over the years.

"When you look at River Waki, it is a shadow of what it used to be," he says, adding that this is because of destruction taking place in areas around Bugoma forest. "If the destruction of the catchment of Lake Albert continues, then Lake Albert and the people who depend on its ecological assets, including fish, are in danger," he says.

Wabyona previously worked with Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) before retiring. Given that what used to be large forests have been wiped out from the catchment of Lake Albert, it is not surprising that the water bodies are reducing in terms of quality and quantity.

The wetlands are also under invasion. A Vision Group team on a factfinding mission, two weeks ago, encountered charcoal burners and illegal loggers busy working in Bugoma.

The charcoal burners took to their heels as the team approached. There were also sounds of chain power saws working against the trees deeper in the forest. The adversaries are the usual suspects — unsustainable agriculture, charcoal burning, illegal timber logging and mining, according to a recent report of the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society.

The destruction of the environment has always stemmed from the expansive farmland. The small scale farmers often believe land under forests is more fertile for cultivation. In most cases, the farmland has covered the entire landscape, including the river-beds.

 

The Vision Group team observed farmers' disrespect for river banks and lake shores, which are the protection zones of the water bodies. The water bodies, including streams, rivers, lakes and wetlands, are referred to as highly sensitive ecological systems.

For this reason, regulations were put in place to protect the banks of the streams, rivers and shores of lakes as well as the wetlands. They require that the area measuring 200 metres from the shores of a big lake should be protected. This is also known as the protection zone of the lake.

The protection zone of a small lake is 50 metres. The small rivers have a protection zone of 50 metres as opposed to 100 metres for a big river. The streams and wetlands have a protection zone of 30 metres. The well-knitted vegetation, including trees and wetlands that used to clean out the dirt and impurities in water, has disappeared. "Soil erosion is at its highest and it is causing silting of the streams and rivers," Wabyona says.  



 FOREST ATTACK 

While the Government has put in place a conservation policy and established bodies, including the UWA, the National Forestry Authority (NFA) and the Forestry Sector Support Department, forest destruction has not stopped.

In the last the last 30 years,  forest cover has declined from 24% in 1990 to 8% in 2015. The forest cover is estimated at 9% currently. The wetland cover has also receded from 15% to 8% in the last two decades.

According to the State of Uganda's Forestry Report of 2017 released by Ministry of Water and Environment, Bunyoro sub-region, which was the most gifted part of the country, is losing forest cover much faster than any other part of the country.

This is being replaced by farmland and now sugarcane growing is joining the destructive course. The main cash crops in the region used to be tobacco, but the population is abandoning it and taking up growing of maize, sugarcane and tea as well as bananas for food and income, according to Joselyn Nyangoma, the district environment officer for Hoima.