Kibaale faces environment crisis

A man burns charcoal at Kiryanga in Kibaale district. Photo by Felix Basiime

Kibaale faces environment crisis

By FELIX BASIIME  

Posted  Tuesday, April 10  2012 [http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1383270/-/aw5a0pz/-/index.html]

World Wildlife Fund (WWF), a worldwide non-governmental organisation contracted by government to conserve the biodiversity in the Albertine Rift Valley forests, has warned that Kibaale District risks facing serious consequences of environmental degradation due to deforestation.

According to Mr Andrew Johns Grieser, the technical advisor of the WWF, the organisation has focused on Kibaale in the last two years after finding out that it faces the most impact in the whole region.

“According to our projections, people will start moving away from this district due to environmental degradation. There are climate change refugees all over the world, not of wars but of climate change-related issues like hunger,” Mr Grieser said last week.

Hunger looms
He added: “Unless something special is done at the political level, in the next 20 years Kibaale will be hit by hunger.” According to Kibaale Forest Services officials, deforestation is at about 80 per cent of the gazetted forest reserves.

The findings come at a time when residents have already faced some effects of climate change.
Ms Jane Bagwa Ateenyi, a local beekeeper at Kisaalizi in Kyebando, told this newspaper that there is likely to be one rainy season this year contrary to the previous two.

“We used to have rains by February each year but now they have started in April, an indicator of climate change,” she said. Whereas conservation and mitigation measures would be progressing well in Kibaale by WWF and other NGOs like Navoda through community-based natural resources management, the players accuse the political class of derailing their activities.

The conservationists, without mentioning names, said some politicians encourage residents to settle in reserves while others are involved in timber and charcoal trade.

Most difficult
 

Ms Madrin Kutusa, the district secretary for production and natural resources, could neither deny nor confirm the matter. “Not all of us are involved, at least as a district we have a policy against deforestation but farmers have overwhelmed us with their activities,” she said yesterday.
 

But Mr Grieser said: “This is my 20th project in my lifetime, but this is the most difficult. There are fresh migrations, political pressure and poverty. All these issues are very difficult to handle as an NGO. Unless government steps in, I have little hope on these forests”.
 

The Albertine Rift Valley is the richest in biodiversity in Africa, according to conservationists.

“Our project is trying to convince people to stop deforestation, but it is very difficult, although there is some progress through our interventions,” Mr Grieser added.
 

Kangombe, Guramwa, Nyakarongo, Kasato, Rwengeye, Kyamurangi, Kanaga, and Ruzaire, are some of the gazetted central forest reserves in Kibaale. Others are Kijuna, Rukara, Nakuyazo, Kihaimira, Nyabigoye, Nyabiku, and Kagada Eucalyptus forest.