How a priestly vision resurrected Lazarus Forest in Luweero

According to Peter Ssembogo, the chairman of Luyobyo village, the residents of the village, which is at the border of the forest, began cutting down the trees in the late 1980s at the end of the civil war.

“In the 1960s and 70s when I was still a young man, the forest was very thick and people used to fear walking through it. At the time, it was called Nandere Forest. After the war, residents began making forays into the forest to cut down trees for firewood. Then, they began burning charcoal on a large scale,” he says.

By 2005, the forest was almost gone. There were no trees.The priestly dreamRev. Fr. Joseph Kakooza Nyanzi is the administrator of Bethany Land Institute (BLI), which is in charge of the forest.

He has held the position since November 2019 when he was transferred from the cathedral in Kasana-Luweero diocese.“Three former classmates, Dr. Emmanuel Katongole, Dr. Cornelius Ssempala and Dr. Zachary Rweza, were celebrating 25 years in priesthood.

They debated on how to thank the Lord for the many blessings He had bestowed on them. Fr Katongole suggested that they buy land and plant a forest,” he says.

The suggestion to plant a forest was aligning with Pope Francis’ second encyclical, Laudato Si, in which he lamented environmental degradation and global warming and called on people to take swift and unified global action.Fr Ssempala suggested that if a forest is to be planted, the people living next to it should be sensitised about the importance of conserving the environment or else, they would cut down the trees.

“Fr Rweza told them that both their suggestions were good, but the people need to be taught how to make money from the forest because poverty would tempt them to encroach on the forest,” Fr Nyanzi says.The trio bought 90 acres of land but because of challenges with the squatters, they could not use the land.

In 2019, they approached the then bishop of Kasana-Luweero diocese, who is now the Archbishop of Kampala diocese, and told him about their woes and their vision.“Their vision excited Bishop Paul Ssemwogerere and he told them to look through the 21 parishes and find land. They identified Nandere Forest in Nandere Parish, which was 160 acres. We paid off the squatters and I was moved from the cathedral church to administer Bethany Land Institute,” Fr Nyanzi says.

The diocese of Kasana Luweero became a co-founding partner of BLI through a memorandum of understanding with the three priests.

The BLI campus was built inside the forest, which was renamed Lazarus Forest after the afforestation exercise began.Restoring the forestIn 2020 the BLI began repairing the degraded forest, replanting natural tree seedlings.

Chris Mukwaya, the forest officer, says although there were trees by the roadside, a walk into the forest revealed wide expanses where the trees had been cut down.

“We began by planting live markers on the boundary to keep the forest safe from encroachers. Live markers are trees that grow very fast, such as the terminalia and fig trees. These live markers are non indigenous to the area but the trees we have planted inside the forest are indigenous species,” he says.

The BLI has two nursery beds, one for indigenous natural trees found inside the forest such as mahogany, musizi and mivule, and the other for non-indigenous trees, which was planted outside the forest. The institute also planted a herbal garden to cater for traditionalists and herbalists who used to cut down trees for medicinal purposes.

“We get our seedlings from Mabira and Budongo forests and also contact forestry officials in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan for help in sourcing. To guard against encroachers, we have a forest guard who patrols every morning and evening,” he says.

Lazarus Forest is now the only natural forest left in the district. Ssembogo says initially, the villagers were not happy with the restoration exercise.

“People were not happy when they were barred from accessing the forest for firewood and charcoal burning. They thought the restoration exercise undertaken by BLI was meant to take away their means of livelihood. With time the BLI allowed them back in only to pick firewood but not to cut down trees,” he says.

Throughout the Covid-19 induced lockdowns trees were planted and last year, the stream, which forms part of the affluent that feeds into River Lumansi in Makulubita sub-county, began flowing again. Johnson Beebwa Ssemanda, a conservationist and climate change activist, says that once nature is subjected to deliberate restoration, it can yield good results.

“The forest trees retain a lot of water that goes down into the soils while the root trees help break down the soils for passage of the water. When these trees are cut down, the heat from the sun hits the earth directly leading to drier soils. Now, with afforestation, root trees are breaking the soils again while water tapped by the leaves is absorbed by the soils. This means the stream can flow again,” he explains.

The benefits

Bird and animal species have also returned to their habitat. A bird’s species inventory conducted in 2023 at BLI in partnership with Avian Conservation Uganda Society listed a total of 166 bird’s species at the Lazarus Forest.

Surprisingly about 30 percent of the bird’s species listed are migratory, having found favorable conditions such as, food, shelter and water at the forest.

Derrick Kavuma, a conservationist at the forest says the breeding conditions provided by the indigenous tree species is the reason for the bird’s influx.

“Lazarus forest has now the largest population of the Ross’s turaco bird species in the central region. Currently, we are keen on harnessing the bird watching industry at the forest as we plant more indigenous trees,” he says.

The Bird’s inventory lists bird’s species such as, include papyrus gonelek, Rwenzori turaco, African paradise flycatcher, red-throated bee-eater, white-browed Coucal, shoebill, black-headed gonolek, African jacana, African fish eagle, purple-breasted sunbird, Congo pied hornbill, great blue turaco, superb starling, African grey parrot among other species.The diocese has an outreach programme with an ambitious target of planting one million trees spread out in the 21 parishes by 2050.

At least 450,000 trees will be planted in the Lazarus Forest while 550,000 will be planted in the greater Luweero districts of Nakasongola, Nakaseke, and Luweero. Besides tree planting, the BLI also hosts foreign tourists and students who come to camp in the forest or study its biodiversity. “

The residents have been given tree seedlings free-of-charge and taught how to plant trees in their compounds. If people plant trees in their homes they will not raid the forest to look for firewood.

It used to be so hot and dry in this area but since the restoration of the forest, we now have rain,” Ssembogo says.

Lazarus forest has a total of 166 indigenous tree species including the musene, musizi, and musenene among others. The forest has a podocarpus tree that is 67 meters high and is believed to be at least 80 years old. It survived the encroachers at the height of the indiscriminate tree cutting between 2004 and 2014.

Fr Katongole lives mostly in the United States, while Fr Ssempala is a Philosophy professor at Makerere University. Fr Rweza died in 2021 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

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