Illegal Land Owners Delaying Bugoma Forest Report Release

Illegal land owners and investors in eco-tourism have been cited to have allegedly influenced the delay of the release of the report on the opening of the boundary of the Bugoma Central Forest Reserve

Christine Nakimweero Kaaya , the woman member of parliament for Kiboga who doubles as the opposition minister for Water and Environment  is convinced  that  the investors are sweet talking and probably corrupting some of the land officers to delay the sharing of this report.

“I believe that is the case. That is why they were even coming up with the proposals of influencing local government to request for the change of the land use in the central forest reserves” she states.

The demand for the exercise to open the boundaries was against a backdrop of reports of many illegal land owners in gazetted forest reserves.

“It is unfortunate that to date we have not received that report.  That is the exact challenge, that there are a lot of illegal land owners in the forests who brought a number of tenants in the forest. Some of them accessed land titles illegally”

She says it’s very important for the ministry of water and environment through NFA to harmonize with the ministry of lands because it’s the ministry that issues the land tittle.

Some people, she said had connived with cultural institutions to access land in the forests and  have also connived with the local governments in the area to request that these central forest reserves be turned into national parks.

This on the ground that national parks bring in more revenue to the district local councils than the forest reserve.

“That is any way their interest. Too much interest in the wild game than the forest cover. Yet based on the ongoing activities the forest cover is needed more than the wild game. And if the environment and the emissions are just left in the atmosphere, even the   wild game we anticipate to have in the area will be no more” she averred.

Under the national parks management act, there is a provision for eco-tourism where individuals are given portions to develop them, build infrastructure for tourists like roads and hotels.

“And they believe that in case it’s turned into a national park, then they will turn into managers of eco-tourism within these parks and they become legal then. If it was a lease hold land tittle, it can be turned into free hold land title which is very dangerous for those areas” she stated.

With the ongoing oil extraction activities, Kabale airport, the East African oil pipe line,  among other activities, the shadow minister for environment is concerned that these and other activities will generate a lot of  carbon emissions, which she states would have been consumed   by the Bugoma and Budongo forest  for a start.

Dennis Obo the spokesperson ministry of lands, housing and urban development told this reporter that the exercise to open the boundary was concluded by their technical team following the cabinet directive to open the boundaries of Bugoma Central forest reserve.

He revealed the report on the same is already out and was submitted to cabinet.

“We usually implement cabinet directives, we went on ground, we opened the boundaries, we did produce a report on the same and we submitted this report back to cabinet last year 2023~ he affirmed.

Without divulging the details of the report,  Obbo said they were now awaiting cabinet decision on the matter.

“All I can say is that we did our work, we completed, and submitted the report to cabinet for their consideration and decision making”.

The Bugoma Central Forest reserve boundary opening started in November 2021 following a cabinet directive in 2019 to the ministry of water and environment, after it was entangled in controversial land dispute.

The exercise was concluded in 2022 August but the report of the same  has never been published or shared with parliament and other state holders.