The
Ugandan Government through the National Forest Authority (NFA) is worried about
the recurrent replacement of natural forests with eucalyptus and pine trees in
many parts of the country including wetlands.
Tom Okello Obong, the Executive
Directorof NFA has indicated that in some areas, people have
reached the extent of planting the eucalyptus in gazetted forest reserves,
which he says is an aberration to natural forests protection guidelines.
In some instances, NFA has issued permits to private individuals to operate
from forest reserves with environment-friendly activities.
Okello has instructed all NFA staff including rangers to ensure that the
provisions of the licenses are strictly observed for purposes of safeguarding
the environment.
Reports
at NFA indicate that Uganda’s forest cover has tremendously decreased from 24
percent (4,933,271 hectares) of land area in the 1990 to less than the
current 9 (1,956,664 hectares) percent in 2018.
However, Okello has indicated that they recently launched a nationwide tree
planting campaign, in which they intend to plant 10 million new trees in a bid
to restore the country’s lost forest cover.
According to him, the authority has instructed all their staffs at regional
levels to restock all their tree nursery beds of indigenous seedlings, to
enable them realize the dream by the year 2020, urging Ugandans to embrace the
campaign.
Okello explains that the intervention is in line with Sustainable
Development Goal number 13, which demands for urgent action to combat climate
change and its impacts.
Notably, the intervention has come after the Lwengo district executive and
securing committees last year, banned the planting of eucalyptus trees in
wetlands in the area.
The district forest department together with police has since moving around
cutting all eucalyptus forests planted in wetlands.
–URN
