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LUWERO, UGANDA | THE INDEPENDENT | Luwero district has acquired 160 acres of land to restore a forest reserve.
In 2016, the Luwero district council passed a resolution to degazette Nyimbwa forest reserve, located near Bombo town council, to pave the way for the establishment of an industrial park. Nyimbwa Local Forest Reserve is estimated to be 65 hectares.
The land has since been partitioned and given away to several investors who are involved in poultry farming, among other projects.
However, the resolution didn’t go well with environmentalists who petitioned Parliament and the Office of the Inspectorate of Government, challenging the move, saying it’s a threat to the district’s efforts to maintain forest cover.
Samuel Mulwana, the Chairman of the Luwero District Land Board, said that the district council resolved that, after allocating the land to industrialists, alternative land be secured to restore the forest.
Mulwana explained that in 2024, the district, with support from the investors of Backbone Feeds Limited, SR Afro Chicks and Breeders Limited, who had applied for the land, agreed to buy alternative land for the forest restoration.
He adds that since then, 160 acres of land have been bought at Nakigoza village in Butuntumula sub-county, and land titles have been transferred to the Luwero District Local Government to pave the way for restoration efforts.
Erastus Kibirango, the LCV Chairman of Luwero District, said that it was difficult to save the forest reserve since several people had encroached on it and made huge developments, which were equally important for the economy.
Kibirango said they agreed to the deal with the investors and received land titles for the piece of land, which they bought for the restoration of the forest.
Kibirango said that now there is a proposal that the district leases the land to other people to plant trees since it lacks the resources to maintain them, but consultation is ongoing on the matter.
He said that, nevertheless, the district council had directed the Forest office to start small by allocating some money in the financial year 2025/26 to kick-start the tree planting on land to avoid encroachment and grabbing.
Earlier on, Deo Mijumbi, the Luwero District Forestry Office, said the district had successfully restored 46 acres of the Kalagala Forest Reserve and 25 acres of the Bbowa Forest Reserve. The forests had also been depleted by the encroachers.
Mijjumbi added that through the Forest Income Enhancement and Forestry Conservation programme, they also engaged in encouraging farmers to plant trees alongside other crops to reduce poverty at home and promote restoration efforts.
Luwero district is among the districts that have lost a big chunk of forest cover and is struggling to restore it.
According to Global Forest Watch, Luwero and Nakaseke districts lost 8.45 thousand hectares (kha) of tree cover in 2023, with all of this loss occurring within natural forests. This marks a continuation of a troubling trend; since 2001, the district has lost 105 kha of tree cover, making it one of the most severely affected districts in Uganda.
The tool also reported 1,647 deforestation alerts in Luwero and Nakaseke between September 3 and September 10, 2024, covering 20 hectares of forest.
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URN
We congratulate the District upon the achievements
For Kalagala Subcouty
It is our prayer that as the trees grow, the monkeys currently occupying places where people are practicing conservation will shif to the Public Forest
We do not know what to do about these monkeys because an attempt was made to notefy
Wild life
The Vermin control unit
But the monkeys continue to impart stress to the community
Then when they destroy gardens, making people loose an income
Let the tees grow very fast
It will be a great relief