NFA on the spot as residents cut 30 acres of trees in Mpigi

National Forestry Authority (NFA) officials in Mpigi District are on the spot over the continued degradation of Navugulu Central Forest Reserve.

Monitor has learnt that loggers have cleared more than 30 acres of trees in the forest within one month.
Some residents on Wednesday blamed the destruction of the forest on a senior army officer whom they declined to name.

“That army officer is the one destroying our natural forest. He hires people to cut down trees which he sells and later plants eucalyptus. This is what he did on the other part of the forest where NFA reportedly gave him a permit to carry out reforestation,” a resident of Boza Village, who preferred anonymity, said.

How they got land
He said the army officer and some residents legally acquired the land through the Collaborative Forest Management (CFM) strategy, but instead of sustainably utilising the forest, they are destroying it.
“At first, they were planting eucalyptus trees in the depleted part, but later started clearing trees to plant crops. Today, all the individuals who NFA authorised to use the forest under the strategy lost track and need to be thrown out,” he added.

Mr John Kibuuka, the NFA manager in charge of the Mpanga sector, admitted that they allocated 100 acres of the depleted part of the forest to the locals to grow crops but keep the other section of forest intact under the CFM strategy. “We gave priority to residents to carry out afforestation through the collaborative forest management groups hoping that they will protect the forest. However, we were surprised to learn that the locals had sold the land to one army officer who gave each person Shs2m,” Mr Kibuuka said.

“These people, who had nowhere to cultivate their crops, encroached on the intact section of the forest with the said army officer whom we are investigating. They have so far destroyed more than 30 acres of the forest,” he added.

Mr Kibuuka said NFA has evicted hundreds of encroachers from at least 29 forest reserves in the Greater Mpigi area, while more than 800 hectares of  depleted forest reserves have been restored in collaboration with corporate companies in the last decade.

Mr Muhammed Kateregga, the chairperson of the Navugulu CFM group, said the army officer hoodwinked them.

“After becoming a member, he started buying portions of forestry land from the residents and became the sole owner of 100 acres which NFA had given to CFM members. If NFA had not cleared him, there is no way we could work with him,” Mr Kateregga said.

He said other private tree growers are conniving with some unscrupulous locals to clear other forests in Nawandigi, which stretches to neigbouring Butambala District.

Mr Kateregga added that the residents later approach NFA for licences to plant eucalyptus.
Recently, local authorities in Butambala protested NFA’s move to replace indigenous trees in Nawandigi Central Forest Reserve with exotic tree species.

They claimed NFA has already cut down some indigenous tree species such as Mvule, Musizi, and Mahogany and replaced them with eucalyptus trees, which are unsuitable for the soil and climate.

Destruction 

Greater Mpigi, which also covers Butambala and Gomba districts, has about 38 forest reserves of which 20 have already been destroyed.

For example, Lwamunda Forest Reserve, which initially had 7,255 hectares, only has 1,855. Forests and woodland account for 15 per cent of Uganda’s territory, but the country’s forest cover has dwindled from 24 percent in the 1990s to 8 percent currently.