Buvuma loses 2,500 hectares of forest cover

More than 2,500 hectares of forest cover has been destroyed in the island district of Buvuma for timber and farming in the past seven years, Daily Monitor has established.
This implies that half of the district’s forest cover, measuring 5,000 hectares is completely depleted, exposing residents to negative consequences of environmental degradation.

Out of the depleted 2,500 hectares of forests, 2,110 hectares are on the central forest reserves managed by National Forestry Authority (NFA), while 390 hectares are manned by the district.
Daily Monitor has learnt that massive tree cutting has occurred in the past two years as more people continue to invade the island looking for farm land.

Mr Gladys Nalunkuuma, the Buvuma District environment officer, confirmed that seven forest reserves managed by the district have been encroached on and degraded, leaving great damage.
She blamed massive encroachment of forests on some islanders who misused money received as compensation for their land which government too over for growing palm oil, and chose to settle in forests instead of buying land elsewhere.

Government project
Government has in the last six years been buying land from residents to start growing oil palm on the island.
The Buvuma Palm Oil project is implemented under the Vegetable Oil Development Project (VODP) under the Ministry of Agriculture, which has already secured more than 7,000 hectares of land for Oil Palm Uganda Ltd (OPUL) to grow oil palm.

“Some people on the main Island where the oil palm project is going to take place, misused the money they received as compensation for their land and when they were told to vacate and pave way for the project to kick off, they had nowhere to go and ended up encroaching on forest reserves and are busy cutting down trees,’’ she said during an interview on Monday.
She also revealed that some loggers come from as far as Kampala and Mukono districts and at least two trucks laden with timber and logs leave Buvuma Islands every day.

The most targeted tree species, according to Nalunkuuma are mahogany, muvule, red cedar, mutuba and musizi.
The Buvuma District vice chairperson, Mr Ronald Wanda, blamed the illegal encroachment on laxity of NFA officials.
“Some NFA supervisors here have become landlords on forestry land, they are the ones giving clearance to residents to cut down trees or cultivate for personal financial gains. This has made protection of forests very difficult,” he said.

He added that some central forest reserves such as Nakonwa, Kande, Bukayibaale and Bugusa, which were initially covered with a variety of trees, are now bare, with only stumps standing.
When contacted, Mr Jimmy Byanabwe, the NFA supervisor in Buvuma Islands declined to comment on the matter referring these reporters to NFA spokesperson Aisha Alibhai who requested for time to first consult her superiors.

The outgoing Buvuma Resident District Commissioner, Ms Lillian Nakaweesi, said NFA officials deployed in Buvuma have done nothing to stop the wanton destruction of forests in the district.
“The NFA officials have done a disservice to this country, they are the ones who issue permits to encroachers. I recently wrote to NFA executive director asking him whether he is aware of the collaborative forest management (CFM) groups which were launched here and he was shocked about the information I gave him,” she said.

According to a recent report by Food and Agricultural Organisation, 200,000 hectares are destroyed every year up from 92,000 hectares two decades ago. The report says the rate at which forests are disappearing outstrips the rate of tree planting, which is estimated at only 7,000 hectares annually.

Forest conservation
Buvuma main Island has a land area measuring about 200 square miles (517km).
It is gifted with 26 gazetted forest reserves and is a popular destination for bird-watching tourists.
Recently, environmentalists blamed the disappearing forest cover on the increasing change in land use where large acreage of forest land in Buvuma Islands has been converted into farmland.

NFA manages 506 forest reserves across the country, but many of them have been destroyed and converted into plantations. Ministry of Environment records indicate that 493 out of the 506 central reserves in the country are under heavy encroachment, especially in the central region, south west and northern areas.

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