Expedite the Reopening of Bugoma Forest Boundary to settle the conflicts in Kikuube district.
Bugoma Central forest
By: Kato Paul
Worth Noting:
- The protest which was caused by the local communities instigated the Land Ministry to call for engagement meeting to resolve the issues in February 2022, the Lands Ministry conducted various community engagement meetings with the different stakeholders to sensitize on how and when to resume back to the reopening of the Bugoma forest boundaries. This was done to enable the public understand the importance of the boundary reopening and enabling the stakeholders to participate in the processes.
- In the meeting they agreed that the whole processes of the Bugoma boundary reopening will be finished in April 2022. It is noted that up to date nothing has happened concerning with the exercise of resuming back to the boundary reopening.
Recently, the media reported about the Bugoma host community evictees accusing of their leaders for causing the conflict in the district. This is due to delay by the ministry of lands and National Environment Management to reopen the Bugoma Forest boundaries. The delay is likely bring down the development of the district.
It is should be noted in November 2021, the National Forestry Authority (NFA) and the Ministry of Lands started the reopening of the Bugoma forest boundaries in order to save the forest from massive destructions and make the Bugoma Host communities and Hoima Sugar Limited understand their demarcations but unfortunately, the exercise was abandoned towards the end of 2021 due to protests from the Bugoma host communities. This was because of the unaddressed issues which were still pending; these were including limited participation of stakeholders like the religious leaders, Civil Society Organizations, environmental activists and the local people and limited sensitization and others.
The protest which was caused by the local communities instigated the Land Ministry to call for engagement meeting to resolve the issues in February 2022, the Lands Ministry conducted various community engagement meetings with the different stakeholders to sensitize on how and when to resume back to the reopening of the Bugoma forest boundaries. This was done to enable the public understand the importance of the boundary reopening and enabling the stakeholders to participate in the processes.
In the meeting they agreed that the whole processes of the Bugoma boundary reopening will be finished in April 2022. It is noted that up to date nothing has happened concerning with the exercise of resuming back to the boundary reopening.
The delaying of the Bugoma forest boundary reopening exercise has now resulted to conflicts among the Bugoma forest host communities, district leaders and the security organs in Kikuube district.
The conflict resulted from the delay of the reopening of the Bugoma forest boundaries is likely to cause an obstacle on the development of the activities taking place in the district because each leader will be his or her things which is a big problem. The reopening of the Bugoma Forest boundaries needs to be done as soon as possible to stop the conflicts that have erupted in Kikuube district, increase the conservation efforts of the forest and enable the local communities and Hoima Sugar Limited to understand their demarcations.
Therefore, I call on the Ministry of Lands, National Forestry Authority (NFA), the local leaders in Hoima and Kikuube to take immediate action on the reopening of the Bugoma forest boundaries in order to stop the conflicts in Kikuube district that may cause the development of the district very difficult, enable the affected persons to understand their demarcations and increase the conservation of the forest as well.
Kato Paul-Research Associate at Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO)
Katop.adyeeri@gmail.com
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