Apac residents want Maruzi forest boundaries opened
The Land officer Ms Eunice and the district speaker Apac and the team leader lead the community to one of the mark stones. Photo | Marko Taibot
What you need to know:
- The residents claim that NFA has extended the boundaries from the original land that their grandparents gave to the government between 1967 and 1968 but they have now entered by more than three square kilometres.
Residents of Akokoro Sub-county, Apac District living around Maruzi Central Forest Reserve have accused the National Forestry Authority (NFA) of extending the boundaries of the forest into community land, which they have been using for grazing their animals.
The residents claim that NFA has extended the boundaries from the original land that their grandparents gave to the government between 1967 and 1968 but they have now entered by more than three square kilometres.
Mr Samuel Ogwal Oboma, the team leader of the aggrieved residents, said at least 3,000 families had been affected.
He said the problem emerged in 1986 when then leaders allegedly connived with NFA officials to extend the boundaries without consulting stakeholders and members of the community.
“The problem is our land which our grandparents and elders it to the government but the boundaries have been tampered with,” Mr Ogwal said
He noted that so many people have now been left without land and majority of them are people who came during the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency.
“We allowed them to settle with us here, they even extended the boundaries to my own land, I have about three square miles of land with markstones but my land is claimed to be inside the protected area,”Mr Ogwal said.
Another resident, Mr Emmanuel Ogola, said: “Our parents gave about 52 squre miles for the government to establish a ranch and another 66 square miles for the forest. But now they are extending the boundaries of the forest to our land.”
“We have animals, but now we cannot graze in our own land, when we graze our cattle they bring for us armed men to beat us, we are going to start making use of our land,” he said.
The district speaker, Mr Peter Obong Achuda, said locals in Akokoro Sub-county had petitioned his office over the matter.
“I received the petition last year in February and I have instituted a committee of councillors to investigate the claims made by the community. The committee has not yet given me a report,” the speaker said last week.
The NFA area supervisor, Ms Juliet Auma, said Maruzi reserve was gazetted in 1932 by the British government, but not in 1967 as the community claimed.
“We have not extended any boundaries of the forest. When we got the complaints from the community, we advised them to write to the Executive Director of NFA and make a formal complaint,” Ms Auma said.
The Apac Resident district commissioner, Mr George Abdul, said: “I was wondering how a government entity, in this case NFA, could encroach on community land, it could be vice versa, for when I came here very many people came to me, claiming Maruzi ranch had been extended, but when I went on ground I found more than 272 people inside the ranch.”
He suggested that there is a need to open the boundaries to resolve the matter.
According to the NFA, Maruzi central forest reserve covers 6,118 hectares, and Uganda has a total of 506 central forest reserves covering 1,265,471 hectares.
