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Uganda Forestry
In the late 1980s, 7.5 million hectares of land in
Uganda
consisted of forest and woodland. About 1.5 million
hectares, or
7 percent of Uganda's dry land area, were protected forest
reserves. Roughly 25,000 hectares of protected reserves
were tree
farms. The most important forest products were timber,
firewood,
charcoal, wood pulp, and paper, but other important
products
included leaves for fodder and fertilizer, medicinal
herbs,
fruits, and fibers, and a variety of grasses used in
weaving and
household applications. Production of most materials
increased as
much as 100 percent between 1980 and 1988, but the output
of
timber for construction declined from 1980 to 1985, before
increasing slightly to 433 million units in 1987 and
continuing
to increase in 1988. Paper production also increased
substantially in 1988.
Nationwide forest resources were being depleted
rapidly,
however. Deforestation was especially severe in
poverty-stricken
areas, where many people placed short-term survival needs
ahead
of the long-term goal of maintaining the nation's forestry
sector. Agricultural encroachment, logging, charcoal
making, and
harvesting for firewood consumed more wooded area each
year. An
additional toll on forest reserves resulted from
wildfires, often
the result of illegal charcoal-making activity in
reserves.
Neither natural regrowth nor tree-planting projects could
keep
pace with the demand for forest products.
In 1988 the Ministry of Environmental Protection was
responsible for implementing forest policy and management.
Ministry officials warned that the loss of productive
woodlands
would eventually lead to land erosion, environmental
degradation,
energy shortages, food shortages, and rural poverty in
general,
and they hoped to change traditional attitudes toward
forests and
other natural resources. In 1989 the government
implemented a
six-year forestry rehabilitation project financed by the
United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Food and
Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations (FAO). This project
included a
nationwide tree-planting campaign and a series of
three-year
training courses for rural extension agents, leaders of
women's
groups, educators, and farmers. Britain, the Federal
Republic of
Germany (West Germany), and several multilateral donor
agencies
also provided assistance in the forestry sector.
Economic crises often hampered efforts to conserve
natural
resources, however. Many people lacked the motivation to
plan for
future generations when their own survival was at risk. As
a
result, illegal activities, including logging, charcoal
making,
and firewood gathering in posted reserves contributed to
rapid
deforestation. Government forestry agents, who were
generally
underpaid, sometimes sold firewood for their own profit or
permitted illegal activities in return for bribes. In
these ways,
entrenched poverty and corruption drained public resources
from
use by present and future generations. In 1989 officials
threatened to prosecute trespassers in posted forest
areas, but
by the end of the year, it had not implemented this
policy.
Data as of December 1990
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