Will ban on endangered tree species work?

GULU/OTUKE. Northern Uganda and West Nile Sub-regions are the only areas in Uganda that have the Afzelia africana commonly known as afzelia or beyo and shea nut tree species.
The reserved tree species are, however, currently on the verge of extinction due to uncontrolled and rampant illegal harvesting and trade in the logs and their products.
This has been brought about by the lucrative markets the logs, especially from Afzelia africana fetch in Asian countries while Shea nut trees are cut and burnt into charcoal and its fruits used for making lotions, soap, food supplements and snacks.

The dwindling population of these endangered tree species has forced the Ministry of Water and Environment to suspend with immediate effect any cutting, transportation and sale of shea nut and Afzelia africana tree logs and their products.
The minister of State for Water and Environment, Ms Mary Goretti Kitutu Kimono, in a circular issued early this month, said the ministry was in the process of reviewing and harmonising the licensing, harvesting and movement of the products before resuming operations in the trade and harvesting of the products.

But some leaders in Acholi Sub-region have reservations whether the government directive will help save the endangered tree species.
The Gulu District chairperson, Mr Martin Ojara Mapenduzi, says the directive won’t help solve the already escalating trade in Afzelia africana in the district.
In Gulu, Palaro and Paicho sub-counties are some of the hotspots, where uncontrolled illegal cutting of afzelia Africana tree species and heavy charcoal burning takes place, according to Mr Mapenduzi.
Mr Mapenduzi accuses police, army and government officials for participating in cutting down the trees cheaply for export to Asian countries and burning charcoal for sale in central region.

“These directives won’t help save the tree species. These are mere words on paper that have not been followed with a holistic approach on saving these trees in the future. Government must ensure that they deal with the perpetrators before they “utter” such directives,” he says.
Mr Mapenduzi notes that their survey shows trees in the two sub-counties are being sold at Shs20,000 by the locals due to the poverty levels in the region.
He says although they have been able to identify some of the army and police officers promoting the vice, they are unable to get them to face the law because they are “untouchable”

We can’t do much
The Aswa regional environmental police coordinator, Mr Alex Nkayalwa, however says the temporary suspension of the logging of beyo may not be sustainable since most of the tree species are on community land.
He cites the Atiak Sugar Factory land in Atiak Sub-county, Amuru District, where an investor has continued to clear tree species in huge quantities to open land for sugar cane growing.
“We can’t do much at the moment. Many people are destroying the trees because they planted them on their private land,” Mr Nkayalwa says.
He adds that more than four trucks loaded with beyo logs are ferried every week from the Atiak Sub-county alone to Kampala.
Last week, police in Amuru District impounded a truck used for carrying beyo trees.

According to Mr Nkayalwa, a total of 35 people were last year arrested in connection with environmental offences adding that eight were convicted while 25 other cases are still in court.
He says the biggest threat to the environment in the region is the escalating levels of charcoal burning, warning that if it is left unchecked, it will leave a big impact on the environment.
Mr Nkayalwa says the need to open land for cultivation has made it impossible for people in the region to stop tree cutting.

Police blamed
Mr Daniel Ojok Aruca, the Okwang Sub-county chairperson, says unless police distances itself from receiving bribes from the dealers, the directive will not yield any fruit.
“We passed a by-law two years ago against commercial tree cutting, especially shea nut trees but police would let the suspects free once they offered them money,” he says.
Okwang Sub-county is one of the most affected by commercial tree cutting (charcoal burning) areas in Lango Sub-region. However, the shea tree remains an indigenous but restricted asset since it produces nuts from which shea butter is extracted.

However, Mr John Bosco Odongo, the Otuke District chairperson and also the chairperson Aswa catchment management committee, says the war against charcoal trade remains tricky because government has not provided alternative sources of energy for cooking.
A bag of shea charcoal costs between Sh45,000 and Sh55,000 in Lira Town while charcoal from other tree species cost Sh35,000.
“People have and continue to cut down trees majorly for survival and it is meaningless to stop or arrest them without offering them an alternative,” Mr Odongo says.

The government through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with financial support from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) initiated conservation and sustainable use of the threatened Savanna Woodland in the Kidepo Critical Landscape.
The project is implemented by NEMA on behalf of the government, where capacities of rural people will be built to process and produce shea tree products across Abim, Otuke, Agago and Kitgum districts in northern Uganda.

The National Forestry Resources Research Institute is in the final stages of domesticating the tree that grows wildly. It means one would be able to get seedlings to plant it.
In 2011, northern Uganda was zoned to form part of the Upper Nile Water Management Zone by the Directorate of Water Resources Management (DWRM) under the Ministry of Water and Environment. The ministry also streamlined policies to enable efficient environmental protection.
However, environmental and water resources in the region have significantly been depleted, according to the Upper Nile Water Management zone team leader, Mr Johnson Pule.

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