Looming environmental disaster as forests are razed

What used to be a thick natural forest is now a field of tree stumps and turned into farmland for crops. The continued destruction of central forest reserves in Kibaale District and its surrounding areas has now claimed almost all the Kagadi central forest reserves that formed rainfall areas and conservation fof wildlife.
The reclamation of Kagombe and Kanaga Central Forest Reserves started about two decades ago, according to residents and National Forestry Authority (NFA) officials when unknown businessmen dealing in illegal timber cut down trees thereby giving way to farmers to start cultivating as well as resettling in the reserves.
Located in the catchment area of River Muzizi where government intends to construct a power dam, central forest reserves have been depleted up to 100 per cent which were gazetted for conservation of the wild. The river line in Kagadi sector are under Bundongo Range eco-system.
At the north end of Kagombe in Nyabigata village at the river bank of River Muzizi is a local waragi brewing plant that directly discharges waste into the river, posing a threat to aquatic life as the surrounding wetland is the breeding ground for fish for Lake Albert.

Comprising 10 boiling points with four drums each, the brewing area that produces local gin use firewood ferried from the remaining part of Kagombe forest, and uses water, tapping it directly from the wetland that separates the forest reserve and the river as well as pouring its waste into the river.
Workers say they brew 300 to 400 jerrycans of waragi daily, a project that started about two years ago where over 30 people are employed.
Asiimwe, one of the workers at the ginning plant, says they use the river as source of water for the local waragi processing plant at Nyabigate – Kisokoma village.

Syndicated destruction
Uziah Ndyanabo, the NFA manager in charge of Kagadi Sector, says they discovered what he described as “well syndicated destruction” in February while on their routine inspection of the forest reserve.
He says encroachers use outlawed power saws to fell trees while farmers burn the remaining vegetation which also destroyed the ecosystem to pave way for cultivation activities.
“How can a factory be planted in a CFR and harass the reserve to this extent? They even have the liberty to use a truck ferrying firewood from the reserve which we impounded and we have already considered a case against this factory,” says Ndyanabo, adding that the matter is under investigation before the culprits are taken to court.

“All the firewood used for boiling comes from this reserve, they are using a wetland that should be protecting and sieving the water in the river (Muzizi). The area that was initially a forest was cleared and instead turned into cultivation grounds,” says Ndyanabo, adding that the whole part of Kagombe forest leading to River Muzizi is cleared due to insufficient security personnel.
This month, Uganda joins the rest of the world to mark the World Forestry Day under the theme; Celebrating Forests and Water to celebrate the role forests and trees play in sustaining our environment and humanity.
Ndyanabo says the continued disappearance of forests in Kagadi sector is appalling. “I may fail to express what I mean because what used to be natural forests for years have turned into farmlands.”

Contradicting orders
Attributing politics to the heavy encroachment that has mostly affected Kagombe and Kanaga, Ndyanabo says they had successfully evicted the encroachers but politicians during their campaigns told them to go back to their activities in violation of the forest laws.
“You realise that Kanaga central forest reserve was surveyed and squatters had left but in December 2014 they were told to come back even where natural rejuvenation had started is now cultivated,” says Ndyanabo, adding, “Where houses had been demolished, they were rebuilt, which has frustrated hopes of having a forest.”
According to Ndyanabo, political interference in the NFA work has since fuelled the new encroachment which has destroyed the rejuvenating reserves.
Ndyanabo said the massive tree felling followed by fresh clearing in Kagombe forest is in contravention of a temporary court order which maintained the status quo.

In 2013, the High Court halted NFA eviction of encroachers before boundaries of the forest reserves are surveyed to ascertain claims by various sections of the people that NFA wanted to irregularly include their land in the forests.
Documents indicate Kagombe Central forest reserve measuring 11,331 hectares was gazetted in 1932 and it is one of the 16 forest reserves in Kibaale District under NFA.
Other forests facing encroachment and depletion include Guramwa, Kanaga, Ruzaire, all encroached 100 per cent while Nyabiku is 60 per cent depleted, Kijuna (70 per cent) and Muhunga (70 per cent).
Paul Mafabi, the director environment affairs in the Ministry of Water and Environment, says the country loses about 90,000 hectares of forest cover annually yet the resources are important elements of catchment where water is generated apart from rainfall.

Interventions
“Forests help to reduce the effect of soil erosion by way of helping to store water in the hills and catchment areas thereby creating springs,” says Mafabi revealing that government has now embarked on massive tree planting through involving communities and implementing the national tree planting days.
He says that government is carrying out re-afforestation in central and local forest reserves to re-afforestate degraded areas as well as doing agro-forestry where the ministry is working with farmers.

State minister for Environment, Flavia Munaaba says there is a need to engender conservation by making people understand the link between forests and water availability.
“Once people do not understand the link between forests and water, then they don’t know the implication of defamation and the other environment goods which they are entitled to,” says the minister.
However, she attributes the increasing destruction of the forest cover to negligent of NFA officials whom she says have failed to execute their roles in conserving the natural resource.
“But the population out there need to know that forests give us energy but also absorb carbon, hold the soil and they give us oxygen for survival and rainfall formation,” she says.

The problem
Davis Ddamulira, an activist, says the destruction of the natural resource is due to weak enforcement of the laws and lack of the willingness to adhere to conservation.
“The political dimension is a sad one. How do you reverse the already done work of restoring a forest reserve? People should know that at the end of the day, it is not the vote but the common good we get at the end of the day. This means that we need to save the common good,” says Ddamulira, the Executive Director of the Independent Development Fund (IDF).
He says that the community (surrounding the forest) have a duty to protect the forest resources despite the penalties involved.

Causes
Encroachment attributed to unclear boundaries started in 2005 when Kibaale district authorities offered leases and allocated land in various places near the forest.
The allocation of land led to encroachment by farmers and has since attracted other people from different parts of the country to settle in the reserve