Black gold: Inside the commercial charcoal trade in Acholi

The commercial charcoal trade orchestrated by illegal dealers in Acholi Sub-region has taken a new twist, two months after the Water and Environment ministry slapped an indefinite ban on charcoal trade and timber logging in the region.
An investigation conducted by this publication across the sub-region in the past month has revealed that the commercial charcoal business rapidly evolved in lucrative ways for illegal gangs of dealers running a few remaining but isolated pockets of woodlands holding the vast population of consumable tree species.
The phrase “black gold” is what thousands of dealers from different parts of the country, who have descended on trees in the sub-region to tap from the chain, call charcoal.

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On Tuesday, April 18, authorities of Mungula Parish, Itirikwa Sub-county in Adjumani District, in which Apaa land that is under contestation is located, confided in this newspaper that at least 6,000 non-natives have invaded the area in the past two months to engage in the different chains of the trade.
Mr Francis Owor, the head of LC1s and chairperson of Apaa Peace Committee, said they have recorded more than 5,000 active commercial charcoal burners in Zoka C, Apaa Central, Acholiber, Gaji, Oyanya and Kamdini villages.
“We tried in vain to stop the dealers from getting into these villages but police and the army led them to these charcoal camps. There is no other thing we do because both the police and army are not doing much to fight the illegality,” Mr Owor said.

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He added: “There was a time security intensified a crackdown against the charcoal dealers but those newcomers claimed they wanted land to farm and when we discovered they were doing different things, it was late to fight them off.” 
He further said commercial charcoal dealers have destroyed all the tree covers in the villages of Coro, Aker, Luro, Apaa resettlement camp, Goro B, Kalacut, Acut, Zoka and Kamdini, among others and that it is only Acholi-Ber, Gaji, Oyanga and Rwot-Oromo villages with trees intact.
When asked why charcoal trade in the area exploded so quickly, Mr Jesus Iranya, the Itirikwa Sub-county chairman, said they remained tight-lipped to counter the illegal trend due to the profile of individuals behind the trade.
“There are very big people involved in the trade. Before you enforce a measure, you begin receiving random threatening telephone calls from highly placed people,” Mr Iranya said without divulging the personnel and their profiles.
Maj Trevor Kibuuka, the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) commander in Apaa, was arrested by Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) officials and detained at the UPDF 4th Infantry Division headquarters in Gulu City over involvement in a trail of “dirty” dealings in the volatile area.
Maj Kibuuka was alleged to be linked to a racket of self-imposed leaders in Apaa, who are hiring land for commercial charcoal burning but later created an illegal revenue checkpoint at Apaa junction to extort money from the commercial charcoal dealers.
“We found that he had become part of the racket of illegal commercial charcoal dealers involved in illegal land sales and looting properties,” a military source, who preferred anonymity, said.
In February, the Ministry of Water and Environment extended a ban it slapped on commercial charcoal trade and timber production it issued against Gulu District to cover the entire Acholi Sub-region.
Ms Beatrice Anywar, the State Minister for Environment, noted in the letter that the ban was extended due to public demand that the environment in the rest of the districts of the sub-region was equally bleeding due to massive tree cutting for commercial charcoal burning.
In the circular dated February 24 to the 10 accounting officers across the Acholi Sub-region, Ms Anywar said the massive environmental degradation has led to a general deterioration of the environmental conditions and socioeconomic status of households in the area. 
“As a consequence, wood fuel scarcity and climate variability are now a reality, exploitation of land owners and natives by non-resident charcoal traders whose interest is to make financial gains, uncontrolled, illegal movement and camping of persons leading to security threats in the region,” Ms Anywar stated.
She went ahead to state: “All issuance of forest produce movement documentation for charcoal or timber from the districts in the Acholi sub-region as listed above, regardless of the source is forthwith suspended, except for harvests meant for local consumption within the district. All forest produce permit books issued by the Ministry of Water and Environment is hereby recalled with immediate effect.”  
According to Ms Anywar, the charcoal dealers use rudimentary charcoal production technology (earth kilns), which is highly wasteful and not fit for sustainable charcoal production and indiscriminately cut various reserved tree species for charcoal production.
The fruit of trailing the dealers in Pabbo, Atiak, Amuru, Lamogi, Lakang, Pogo and Layima sub-counties was the discovery of a complex chain of trade in which thousands of dealers are engaged in Amuru District alone.
For example, an assemblage of dealers invested in sourcing and hiring land with a convincing population of trees, while a separate group purely invested in power saws and other tree-felling technologies to cut down and chop trees from the hired estates.
Once felled, the dealers then hire the next group, which was found to be masons whose jobs are to assemble the logs into kilns for burning and harvesting the charcoal.
Upon harvesting, dealers whose harvests are in hard-to-reach spots, hire the next group of heavy hauliers and motorists who move the charcoal from the inaccessible spots to particular terminals where the trailers and other trucks can load them for the market.
“I can make at least Shs40,000 a day moving 100 bags of charcoal to an accessible point, usually between 2km and 5km from a terminal,” Mr Tadeo Busiko, a motorcycle rider operating at Zoka C Trading Centre, said in an interview.
He added that if the bags are many, dealers who have got money go for tractors and other hauliers that do not get stuck in the mud. He said by last week, an acre of land covered with trees was being hired at Shs160,000.
“For someone who rents one acre, they can raise an average of 100 bags of charcoal that fetches between Shs1.5m and Shs2m, minus the factors of producing it. A dealer bags averagely Shs800,000 at source,” Mr Busiko said.
From the terminals such as Zoka C Trading Centre, Apaa Centre, Apaa Junction, Acholi-Ber and Gaji villages, trucks line up to be loaded in shifts while police officers and National Forestry Authority (NFA) officials stage nearby to watch the process until a fleet of 10 trucks is realised to qualify for their (NFA) escorting.
At Apaa Market, while a tractor haulier UBA 231G, Fuso trucks registration numbers UBK 305W, and UAU 385J could be seen loading charcoal on board, a land cruiser pickup truck registration number UAR 695Y belonging to NFA were seen patrolling the area.
The same NFA truck with two police officers later drove to Apaa Junction. The two officers emerged to stand and watch Fuso trucks registration numbers UAZ 615R, and UBB 252S and a trailer region number UAX 972B load the consignment before speeding off 20 minutes later. In 2015, the districts in the Acholi Sub-region passed bye-laws and ordinances banning the charcoal trade.
Whereas this was initially effectively implemented in the districts, it was subsequently breached, leading to massive environmental degradation, including rampant cutting of reserved species such as Afzelia Africana and the shea nut tree, also known as Vitelleria paradoxa.
The suspension did not yield much because of corruption in the forest sector and the use of rudimentary charcoal production technology (earth kilns) whose efficiency is between 8 percent and 12 percent, resulting in the loss of trees and forest cover in the past three decades.
The interception 
Last week, Mr Joseph Nsabimana, the Amuru District Police Commander, confirmed that police at Amuru Central Police Station impounded 16 trucks of charcoal and their drivers.
Whereas he declined to disclose the details of the trucks and the drivers, Ms Joan Apio, the Amuru deputy RDC, was quick to note that the impoundment of the trucks and the arrests of their drivers were not linked to the recent Ministerial ban on commercial charcoal production.
She said security conducted preventive arrests of the truckers to save the trucks and the drivers from looters and criminals who hunted them down.
“We have these drivers (all male) in police safe custody, 15 trucks of charcoal and another truck loaded with cassava. They feared that these goons would burn their vehicles, to save their life and their properties, it is when we moved to the ground to secure their safety,” Ms Apio said.
She stated that the under-pressure truckers told security that they have been locked up in the jungles of the district upon failing to secure passage since the Environment ministry banned charcoal business in the region
Days before the incident, five trucks loaded with charcoal together with their owners, survived mob action near Pabbo Town Council in Amuru District after security rescued them from an angry mob who had intended to burn the trucks and lynch the drivers.
This publication also established that Amuru District authorities have not established a formal protocol to implement the charcoal ban prompting concerned stakeholders to introduce illegal groups who have since staged roadblocks in different parts of the district to intercept the dealers.
On Monday, several groups of locals, allegedly led by Kilak County MP Gilbert Olanya, staged roadblocks at several spots on the Gulu-Juba Highway during which several trucks loaded with charcoal were impounded by the locals who ordered nearby residents to loot the charcoal.
Mr Olanya was, however, arrested by police in Gulu City at For-God Trading Centre in Bardege-Layibi Division and charged with mobilising locals to loot trucks transporting charcoal.
Teargas fired
During the rowdy incident, police also fired teargas during the arrest to disperse a group of locals who were already advancing on another truck with registration number UAM 698Q loaded with charcoal to break and loot.
During the investigations,  both NFA and Environmental police were spotted to be offering escort services to the convoy of trucks during the day and at the night across the region until the cartels cross Karuma Bridge.
For example, the Force’s pick-up truck UG 1763S with armed Field Force Unit officers on board led a convoy of trailers loaded with charcoal through security checkpoints across Gulu Amuru, Omoro, and Oyam districts to arrive at Karuma Bridge.
At Karuma, the environmental police vehicle stops and retreats to Gulu together with the personnel after the dealers have crossed the Arua Junction checkpoint adjacent to Karuma Bridge.
Leaders speak out
Mr Olanya said his action followed reluctance and failure by the stakeholders including police, district, and sub-county leaders in implementing the ban.
“For the last three to four weeks, we have been engaging the GISOs, police and the district and sub-county leadership to enforce the ban by the ministry but at the same time. They have not been interested to stop them but connived with them and were extorting money from the dealers,” he said.
“Upon seeing that stakeholders would not help us, we decided to mobilise the communities for action because the stakeholders have been compromised. You find that the money collected is not put in the district or sub-county accounts but pocket and community do not benefit from it,” he added. 
Mr Milton Odongo, the Pader RDC, said due to the continued illegal charcoal business in the district, they have okayed members of the community to help them in intercepting illegal dealers who sneak into and out of the district to trade in charcoal.
“The arrests of the culprits are being done by both security and members of the public. Any member of the public has a right to arrest any suspected criminal and hand over to the police because the police are the lead agency in enforcing law and order,” he said.
Mr Odongo added: “We have encouraged our community members to report to security organs upon seeing these groups of dealers loading charcoal in lorries or felling trees for charcoal and timber. Anybody who is found moving or transporting charcoal or timber will be arrested.” 
Lack of resources
Mr Emmanuel Omara, the Nwoya District forest officer, explained that the lack of resources to facilitate the implementation of the ban and a lack of political will towards the enforcement has frustrated their efforts to rid the district of illegal commercial charcoal business.
“Enforcement requires many things, not an individual but as a team, and as a team we are disjointed, each one doing their things and we don’t have the resources to enforce the ban. We also don’t have any resources to finance the implementation, we only rely on vigilantes who sometimes also betray us,” he said.  
On April 13, the Acholi chiefdom authorities noted in a joint statement that the commercial charcoal trade was frustrating development and livelihoods in the region and breeding a new trend of laziness and dependence.
The statement signed by Premier Ambrose Olaa called for a stoppage of the commercial charcoal trade and implored the state authorities to act accordingly and in line with their duties protecting and preserving the environment. 
“Going forward the chiefs of Acholi direct that no tree should be cut for large-scale commercial charcoal burning and no charcoal should leave Acholi for large-scale commercial purposes. The government should develop and enact robust energy policies and laws that diminish reliance on charcoal as a major source of energy by the population and for certain industries,” he said.
authorities respond 
Unregulated acts of commercial charcoal production decimate our already threatened forest cover, increase air pollution and degrade the land. 
The National Environment Act, 2019 lists commercial charcoal production as an activity that requires mandatory Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA), making it offensive under Section 157 of the Act to commence an activity which requires ESIA before obtaining a certificate of approval from National Environment Management Authority (Nema). 
It attracts a fine not exceeding Shs2 billion or imprisonment not exceeding fifteen years or both for an individual and a fine not exceeding Shs10 billion for a corporate body.
The Nema executive director, Mr Akankwasah Barirega, said in a statement that it has not issued any ESIA certificate for any commercial charcoal production to date.
“The (current) spate of commercial charcoal production across the country is illegal, anybody interested in commercial charcoal production must have in place a sustainable source of charcoal wood,” Mr Barirega said. 
This can only be ascertained through an ESIA as required by law. It does not matter if the land is private or public, gazetted or not gazette, he stated.
“The Uganda Police, district local governments, NFA and all other law enforcement agencies are requested to apprehend for prosecution anybody found engaging in commercial charcoal production without ESIA Certificate by Nema,” he added.
But Mr Fearless Obwoya, the Pader LC5 chairman, said the failure of the Environment ministry to attach guidelines to the ban made it complex for the authorities to enforce the ban.
“The issue is that the ministry issued a directive and ban on commercial charcoal and timber trade in the Acholi sub-region but did not give guidelines for implementation and we don’t know what to do once we intercept a truck, when we get people loading or on transit, the best is to hand over to the police once we impound and police.”