Govt bans commercial charcoal, timber trade in Gulu

The Ministry of Water and Environment has banned commercial charcoal trade and timber production in Gulu District to combat environmental degradation.  

In a January 11 letter, the State Minister for Environment, Ms Beatrice Anywar told the chief administrative officer about the new directive.  “All issuance of forest produce movement documentation for charcoal or timber from Gulu District regardless of the source is forthwith suspended, except for harvests meant for local consumption within the district,” she said.

Ms Anywar said the forest produce permit books at the district have also been recalled. “Most of these documents manifest a lack of on-site verification before issuance of movement permits, thereby leading to under declaration of forest produce, and poor regulation of species used to make charcoal,” she said.

The ban comes at a time Gulu District has lost the vast majority of its 590,000 hectares of tree cover to illegal logging and charcoal burning. According to the Global Forest Watch, the district lost 988 hectares to these activities in 2021 alone. 

“The Ministry established that charcoal and timber dealers target areas that are relatively forested, buy harvesting rights from land owners at a very small fee, and then harvest all trees in sight including uprooting tree stumps which are later converted into timber and charcoal ,”  Ms Anywar said.

In 2018, the government under Section 29 (182) of the National Forestry and Tree Planting Act, 2003 suspended the cutting, transportation and sale of products of Shea nut trees following their rapid destruction, but these have continued unabated mainly in the sub-counties of Patiko, Bungatira, Paibona, Omel Palaro and Owalo in Gulu.

But Ms Anywar said 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 8percent and 12percent, resulting in loss of trees and forest cover in the past three decades.

However, Mr David Ongom Mudong, the Aswa River Region police spokesman, told Monitor that the letter lacked specific directives for enforcement.  

“When the letter comes and you have not told the police what to do and what areas they should enforce, it becomes very difficult,” he said.

Earlier on, Mr Joseph Otim, the NFA sector manager, accused local leaders of conniving with charcoal dealers to collect local revenue to the detriment of the environment.

Mr Charles Ichogor, the Gulu resident district commissioner, and the District Chairperson Christopher Opiyo Ateker declined to comment because they had neither received nor seen a copy of the letter.

Meanwhile, Mr William Amanzuru, the Coordinator for Friends of Zoka, an environmental conservation pressure group in the West Nile region, said the ban might not be enforced just like in 2015 and  2018.  
“Without commitment, we cannot have depth in anything, we saw a similar moratorium in 2017 but it was never implemented say for only aiding military institutions with impunity to abuse the environment more,” he said.