Nwoya recruits 700 vigilantes to combat forest destruction

Nwoya District authorities have recruited 700 vigilantes in a bid to halt the current high rate of forest destruction in the area.
At least 100 youth were recruited from each of the eight sub-counties in the district. The sub-counties are Anaka, Koch Goma, Lii, Lungulu, Alero, Purongo and Got- Apwoyo.
Mr Alfred Okello Okot, the district secretary for production and marketing, said since the vigilantes were recruited last week, they have impounded and destroyed 3,000 bags of charcoal.
Mr Okello, however, noted that the team has been hampered by police officers who sometimes escort trucks loaded with charcoal out of the district. Another challenge, he said, is from powerful business people with close ties to senior government officials who threaten to shoot or arrest the vigilantes.
The areas most affected by forest depletion in the district are Koch Goma, Anaka, Alero, Lungulu and Lii sub-counties where Mr Okello said about 50 square miles of forests have been destroyed by charcoal dealers since 2009.

Pessimism
However, Mr Richard Loka Ojok, the Dog Aswa Village chairperson in Lungulu Sub-county, said the initiative may not save the environment considering the high level of poverty and corruption in the illegal charcoal trade.
Mr Ojok said on the banks of River Aswa, indigenous tress species have been cut down.
“With the high poverty levels among the population as a result of the Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency, it might be hard to stop the charcoal business. It is the only source of livelihood that the locals are looking at,’’ he said
In some cases, out of desperation, a family sells 10 acres of forest land at only Shs100,000, Mr Ojok said.
Mr Arthur Owor, the director of Africa Centre for Research, a Gulu-based advocacy, noted that at least two thirds of forests in Acholi sub-region have been destroyed for charcoal.
Mr Owor said there is a need for sensitisation and reforestation since the rain pattern has changed as a result of depletion of forests.
Four percent of the 2.9 million hectares of Uganda’s forested areas is found in Acholi, according to the Food and Agricultural Organisation 2005 report. The agency says between 1990 and 2010, Uganda lost an average of 88,150 hectares or 1.86 percent per year.
In total, between 1990 and 2010, Uganda lost 37.1 per cent (about 1,763,000 hectares) of its forest cover.