Residents of Kiryanga village, Kyangwali Sub-County in Kikuube district are paying a heavy price for the relentless encroachment on Bugoma forest reserve by sugar cane growers.
Unpredictable rainfall patterns, in addition to extremely high atmospheric temperatures in the area have all been blamed on the brazen encroachment on forest cover in Kikuube district, chiefly clearing part of Bugoma forest for sugar cane cultivation.
This, residents say, has complicated agricultural practices, something which has bred apocalyptic consequences for the citizens of Hoima and Kikuube districts.
These locals are genuinely worried about the climax of the ongoing trend of the invasion of their crops by pests due to rainfall changing patterns and temperatures. Climate experts in Uganda have attributed pests invasion to changing rainfall patterns and temperatures.
These unpredictable weather shifts and patterns have produced agriculture unfriendly scenarios like disastrous rain, drought and extremely high atmospheric temperatures, which have led to the massive invasion of crops by pests like army worms, something which has threatened food security and safety in Bunyoro-Kitara region.
Encroachment of the forest cover in Kikuube district started in early 2020, when the high Court in Hoima greenlited the clearing of about 900 hectares of land for sugar cane growing by Kinyara sugar works.
The aggrieved citizens of Bunyoro-Kitara region say that when rains fall, they do so abnormally with extremely strong winds, snow, thunder and lightening which destroy the surviving crops.
“You had for long waited for the rain, but you couldn’t see it. Now, it has come with disaster. Do you think God who created these forests was stupid?” wonders LCIII Chairperson Kyangwali Sub-county, Bisemeza Emalone.
Mathias Tugumisiriize stood helplessly in his Irish potato garden razed down by the army worm and wondered how he will manage to take care of his 10 member-family.
“My Irish Potatato garden survived drought. Now, it is being destroyed by the army worm. The Irish I planted in the other garden failed to germinate . This is a disaster and we have never experienced it in our lives, those who are threatening our forest [Bugoma] should leave us alone,” Tugumisirize reckons.
John Mugabo, the LC1 Chairperson for Kyabayanja village, intimated to this website in a phone interview that Kikuube as a district should expect serious famine in the near future because of rain storms, pests and diseases for crops which frequently rock the area.
“The situation here will soon be like what is happening in Karamoja. When it shines, it does so intensely. When rains come, they do so with too much wind and snow which destroy people’s crops. What do we do? We can’t stop the destruction of our forest [Bugoma] and this is the major cause of this,” Magambo bitterly complains.
However in a phone interview with Dorothy Ajwang, the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) for Kikuube district, she revealed that climate change is a problem of the entire county, but not Kikuube only, and warned local leaders against making irresponsible comments.
“Of course there is some connection between forests encroachment and climate change, but the situation cuts across the whole country. For matters of Bugoma, consult the RDC ,” said Ajwang.
This website made several attempts to interview the Resident District Commissioner (RDC) for Kikuube district Amran Tumusiime for a comment on this matter, but he declined to pick our calls.
In November last year, MPs from Buganda caucus led by the leader of opposition in parliament Hon. Mathias Mpuuga Nsamba blamed government and National Forestry Authority (NFA) in general for overseeing the obliteration of Uganda’s natural forests which has produced natural catastrophes linked to climate change like disastrous rains and long dry spells.
In a phone interview with Hon. Muwanga Kivumbi, the Chairperson for Buganda caucus on environmental conservation, he remarked that the destruction of Uganda’s forest cover is unstoppable, because people mandated to protect these forests are ones at the forefront of their obliteration, chiefly officials from National Forestry Authority (NFA)
“National Forestry Authority is National Forestry destroying authority, because employees of NFA are the very ones at the forefront of allocating themselves chunks of land in these forests. You can’t send a dog to take care of the meat,” reveals Hon. Kivumbi.
According to the records from the Ministry of Water and Environment, Uganda’s forest cover has plummeted from 24% in 1990 to 10% by 2017.
Worse still, a total of 628 billion was approved by Parliament in the financial year 2022/23 for actions to mitigate climate change, including efforts to restore 850 square kilometers of degraded forest cover, but on a sad note, no funds were apportioned to actual tree planting to restore defforestated forest cover.
It is a vicious obliteration of Uganda’s natural forest cover which seems not to end, in which security operatives are the major accomplices. For instance; in March 13th, 2001, police officers were badly assaulted by UPDF soldiers, as they attempted to impound a lorry carrying illegal timber from Bugoma forest.
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