By: Kato Paul
Worth Noting:
- The whole processes of the Bugoma forest boundary reopening was supposed to end in April this year 2022.Since the last meeting was held by the Lands Ministry in February 2022 nothing has happened concerning with the exercise resuming back.
- The delaying of the Bugoma forest boundary reopening exercise has resulted to the misunderstandings between the Bugoma forest host communities and the people who were assigned to protect the forest, massive destruction of the forest and the Bugoma host communities not able be to access their gardens and arresting of some people as well.
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. 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.
This instigated the Land Ministry to call for engagement meeting to resolve the issues for instance 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.
The whole processes of the Bugoma forest boundary reopening was supposed to end in April this year 2022.Since the last meeting was held by the Lands Ministry in February 2022 nothing has happened concerning with the exercise resuming back.
The delaying of the Bugoma forest boundary reopening exercise has resulted to the misunderstandings between the Bugoma forest host communities and the people who were assigned to protect the forest, massive destruction of the forest and the Bugoma host communities not able be to access their gardens and arresting of some people as well.
It is noted the Bugoma host communities such as Rwekobe, Karokarungi, Nsozi,Kololo and others are no longer having access to their land because they not being allowed by the army protecting the forest. The communities are likely to face serious problem of famine because the whole of this season they had no access to their gardens, more arrests of the people surrounding the forest.
Since 2016 the forest has been under a big threat by Hoima Sugar Limited carrying out sugar cane growing, business rich men cutting down trees for charcoal and timber logging and the local communities carrying out agriculture. The forest boundaries need to be opened to reduce arrests by the local communities, massive destruction of the forest, enable people understand their demarcations, reduce misunderstandings and others.
The Bugoma Forest is a protected tropical forest that is situated southwest of Hoima and northeast of Kyenjojo towns, and east of Lake Albert, in the Hoima district of western Uganda.
Therefore, I call on the Ministry of Lands, National Forestry Authority (NFA), the local leaders in Hoima and Kikuube and other relevant stakeholders to expedite the reopening of the Bugoma forest boundaries.
Kato Paul-Research Associate at Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO)
Katop.adyeeri@gmail.com
