NFA kicks Mehta out of 124-acre Mabira land
The National Forestry Authority (NFA) has recovered 50 hectares (124 acres) of Mabira forest land that Mehta Group of Companies, the parent company of Sugar Corporation of Uganda Ltd (SCOUL), had turned into a sugar plantation.
SCOUL, founded in 1924, manufactures up to 1 million tonnes of Lugazi Sugar a year from its 30,000-acre estate, according to information on its website, and directly employs 7,000 people besides 6,000 other outgrowers.
Mr Tom Rukundo, the NFA director of natural forests, yesterday said it took the authority three years in back-and-forth meetings with the sugar maker to reclaim the land.
“We recovered 50 hectares from Mehta that he was using for sugarcane growing and another 100 hectares from the communities that had encroached on the forest land,” Mr Rukundo said.
“Some of the land was encroached [on] during the times of insurgency and Mehta had a lease on [a section of Mabira] land he got in 1930s, which expired,” he added.
The authority in partnership with Motor Care and environment journalists re-planted part of the reclaimed land with indigenous trees last Saturday.
SCOUL officials were unavailable to comment on the matter. The company, one of the largest tax payers, generates 9.5 megawatts of electricity and in 2014, it set up a distillery which converts molasses into industrial alcohol.
In 2017, a Joint Water and Environment Sector Review Report, curried out by Ministry of Water and Environment, indicated that the country’s forest cover had dropped to 9 per cent, representing a 3 per cent drop in just two years.
The report also revealed that thousands of hectares of Mabira forest had been degraded.
“4,755 hectares of Mabira were mapped as degraded or under stocked and 1,500 hectares of were under restoration,” reads part of the report about the 30,000 hectares forest gazetted in 1932.
Uganda has 506 central forest reserves managed by NFA situated in different parts of the country which represents 15 per cent of the total forest cover.
The other 85 per cent forest cover is managed by Local Governments, individuals and institutions.
Mabira forest is home to rivers that pour water into Lake Victoria and River Nile.
It is also a forest with different animals, birds and a source of medicinal plants.
Because of its rich natural flora and fauna, many tourists frequent the forest.
In 2007, President Museveni, attempted to give out a section of Mabira to Mehta for sugar growing but the plan was botched after environmentalists staged demonstrations that resulted in the loss of lives.
Scientific study
Research. Scientists say there is a big linkage between vegetation cover, forests, livelihood and reducing emissions that result in climate change effects such as long dry spells and extreme temperatures, occurrences common to Uganda.
As trees in the forests grow, they capture carbon in their roots, leaves and stems.
If the carbon is not trapped by vegetation, it escapes into the atmosphere, damaging the ozone layer which protects the earth from direct sun rays, leading to a warmer earth and other adverse effects.
Between 1990 and 2005, natural forest estate outside protected areas reduced by 35 per cent (from 3.46 million hectares in 1990 to 2.3 million hectares in 2005). People are converting hitherto forested land into agricultural land, timber and charcoal burning zones.
