Acting National Forestry Authority executive director Steward Maniraguha. Photo courtesy of @NFAUG on X
Recently, President Museveni tasked the National Forestry Authority, among other authorities, to ensure that the preservation of natural forests is taken more seriously. How is that going?
The President’s last address, which was mainly on Lubigi wetland in Wakiso District, also had great emphasis on the environment, including water and forests.
In particular, I was tasked to check on the state of Mabira Forest. What I can tell you is that we are doing what we can under the available circumstances.
Speaking of Mabira Forest, the last time I visited the area there were more than 10 villages that have their ancestry in the middle of the forest. How far is the relocation plan for them?
Mabira (forest) is a 29,000-hectare central forest reserve that is located in the middle of two growing cities – Jinja and Mukono.
Historically, during the gazetting process in 1942, there were areas that were not part of the gazette and those formed 11 villages. These villages are what we call enclaves. They also form 10 percent of the total area. To be exact, they are 2,900 hectares in area.
Two of these villages are actually growing into town boards. One is Najjembe and the other is Kasokoso. So the management of the forest has always been a problem because of its strategic location in two growing cities. You have pressure coming from Mukono and then the Jinja side, also from people who are looking for forest products such as timber, firewood and charcoal.
While you are trying to repulse those forces that are coming from the exterior, there is that force that comes from the interior because, during the formation of the forest, the population of the people living in the enclaves was really minimal. There is growth and our population since independence has grown by 600 percent.
So we have been writing to various authorities, including Cabinet and Parliament and told citizens that unless these enclaves are managed properly, we stand a high risk of losing Mabira Forest because of the growth in population. So our idea is that we should be able to manage Mabira as a complete block without the enclaves in the middle.
And what have been your suggestions?
We were saying since the enclaves have some big milo titles, the government would consider starting with that, especially the big tea farm and then part of sugar cane. Those can be easily acquired for purposes of relocating people who are inside.
President Museveni (wearing hat) tours Mabira Forest recently. The forest has been heavily degraded. Photo by PPU
What does Uganda lose in letting the forest be depleted?
Its importance can never be underestimated. It is the catchment area for Lake Victoria and it is the mother of the River Nile, and we now have four dams on the river.
If this forest is not protected and managed then we shall lose that strong investment that is directly translating into industrial growth.
There is a public perception that Mabira Forest is almost gone because of massive destruction. But what you are telling me in this interview is very different...Ugandans need to appreciate what Mabira is in the first place.
People need to know that Mabira Forest is not a closed forest like many would think. Many need to know that it is a natural forest with villages legally situated there.
When you drive from Mukono, around Mbalala area, you will enter into a forest and when you go ahead a bit, you will enter a trading centre, then a forest and another trading centre. The public needs to know that where you see a forest is where the gazetted place is.
Where you don’t see trees, then there is no forest. So when they say Mabira is by the roadside; that is where the forest passes. What you see and you would like to see trees there, that is not the forest because it's not gazetted.
I like His Excellency because he seems to understand Mabira very well. He says if anyone has tried to use the aerial view of Mabira, they would be able to appreciate that Mabira is where it should be.
My village in Busia District borders the Busitema Forest from the south and it is one of those forests that have suffered fire outbreaks. What is the authority’s plan for making sure that these forests retain their tree cover and are free from encroachments?
This forest, West Bugwe Central Forest Reserve, covers an area of 354,000 hectares and is a source of livelihood for many people, but the story was more of pull and push.
Much as its boundaries are clear and known, we had no fixed pillars. Among the things we are doing to improve these forests is to open the boundaries and place concrete fences. After doing that, we are trying to strengthen our engagement with the communities.
We got a fire outbreak in West Bugwe Forest Reserve in 2018 because of misinformation. One leader comes and says ‘This forest has been given to us and we have been going to court, our great-grandparents were here and we want to reclaim our forest’.
And people went in and started clearing and burning it down to chase away the baboons. We now identify those and come closer to the people, get in touch with the local leaders and work with partners.
For this forest, we have been in touch with Busitema University for purposes of doing research and restoration activities. There has been a lot of timber felling and charcoal burning on many of these forests.
What is the government doing to solve these issues?
What I want to clarify is that there is not a lot of timber leaving our forests, which is illegal. I want to clarify that if I told you to go and look for timber of natural trees across all the timber markets, you may not be lucky to find what you are looking for.
That is a lie, Mr Maniraguha! I come from a village neighbouring a forest and I have seen how much timber is sold, especially to those building houses. I am talking about the word “a lot” that you used. You seem to indicate that all the timber we are using in Uganda is coming from those forests, which is not true.
There are intermittent movements of people into the forests to cut down a few trees but we have stepped up our vigilance and we are now seeing a lot of trees growing in the forests. What we are doing now is what I told you earlier about partnering with communities and other companies to make sure that the forests are protected but also restored.
What happened to forest rangers who used to guard our forests from encroachers and destruction?
You may not see or find rangers because there has been a change in the nomenclature from rangers to patrol men and they do what rangers then used to do – walk with sticks, pangas and other rudimentary equipment to chase away wrongdoers.
But with the change in the way people who endanger our forests are behaving, using guns and other sophisticated weapons, we are trying to change the policy such that our patrol men can be armed with guns.
In 2019, we were successful where there was an enactment of the National Environment Act that provided for an armed ranger force.
After getting guidance from the Cabinet, we are now in the process of recruiting armed rangers. We are at the stage of developing a curriculum that will guide the training of these people, which will be done by several stakeholders, including police, UPDF etc.
There have been complaints of people acquiring illegal land titles in the forest reserves. How are you handling this conundrum?
That is one of the hardest things to do because you will never know that there is a title until someone has claimed ownership of the land.
So titles are dotted all over and these are being issued by the government, incidentally. You find that area land committees that are next to the forest are not working enough to defend these resources and what is bothering us so much is that the public seems to feel that this land belongs to NFA, and yet this is Government of Uganda land.
So we get land titles and have nothing to do and we have to request the Ministry of Lands that registers them to de-register them.
However, before that happens, we have a challenge of people coming up with injunctions and those are there but we want to encourage the Ministry of Lands to have the courage to have all these titles cancelled because the system they hold has already seen that these titles are established on forestry land.
The elephant in the room: the planned merger of agencies which affects NFA.
How is the authority preparing for this process?
NFA is not a private entity, it is a government agency that is taking the lead in the management of forestry in this country and it cannot fight to avoid the knife.
NFA can only provide technical information on what can happen if there is a change in the status quo that we have given. So forestry management will not start and end with NFA.
I want to comfort you like I have done to many people and my staff that removing NFA from the list of many agencies that we have will not stop forest management.
The only thing we have told the government is that we must be more prepared than ever before to be able to move with the times and protect these forests effectively. NFA has tried in its own way and the efforts are quite clear and we don't want a disaster to arise.
