Councillors accuse NFA officials of abetting illegal tree-felling

By SADAT MBOGO & AL-MAHDI SSENKABIRWA
Posted 


Monday, May 4  

2015 at 

01:00

In Summary

Complaint. Mpigi District councillors are seeking the eviction of NFA officials from the district, claiming they are abetting illegal felling of trees.

MPIGI. Mpigi District councillors have accused the National Forest Authority (NFA) officials of abetting illegal felling of trees in forest reserves in the district.
Mr Benon Nsamba, the deputy chairperson for natural resources committee, said they would move a motion in the next district council meeting to evict NFA officials from the district.
According to Mr Nsamba, the district’s forest cover is slowly disappearing and in a few forests where replanting of trees has been done, NFA is planting only eucalyptus and pine trees.
However, NFA denies the allegations
Addressing journalists at the district headquarters last Friday, Mr Nsamba said 60 per cent of the forests in Mpigi have been destroyed, adding that the most affected areas are Bunjako Islands, Kalandazi, Kabuwuuwo, Bongole, Mpanga, Muduuma and Jalamba.
“We believe districts can ably manage and conserve these natural forests and we ask government to give back that mandate to local councils,” he added.
He said findings by the district natural resources committee indicate that in the first five years, NFA has operated in the district, it managed to evict encroachers and restored some depleted forest reserves, but it later resorted to allocating a number of them to private developers who carry out logging without replanting trees.
However, Mr Michael Okot, the Mpigi NFA branch manager, dismissed allegations that NFA officials were involved in illegal tree-felling in the district. He blamed the disappearing forest cover on what he called stubborn residents who are evicted from forest reserves but later return to them.
Mr Okot accused the district leaders of rushing to the media to incite the community instead of working with NFA to address the problem.
“I have on several occasions facilitated meetings with the district stakeholders to devise means of saving forests, but they just say we don’t want NFA here. We are a statutory body and if you don’t want us, you have to first change the law,” he said in an interview.
He added that their efforts to restore forests together with various corporate companies and organisations have led to restoration of 350 hectares of trees in two years.

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