Ministry plans new timber laws

Ministry plans new timber laws

Water and Environment Minister Maria Mutagamba (L) and the WWF country director, Mr David Duli, tour some degraded areas in Kibaale District yesterday. PHOTO BY Felix basiime 

By FELIX BASIIME
 

Posted Tuesday, June 19 2012 at http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Ministry+plans+new+timber+laws/-/688334/1430294/-/view/printVersion/-/102iuae/-/index.html

In Summary

The proposal is meant to curb deforestation and illegal timber trade in the area.

Kibaale/kyenjojo

The Ministry of Water and Environment has set new terms on which it will license all timber and charcoal dealers countrywide. 

The Environment minister, Ms Maria Mutagamba, said the ministry has streamlined licensing timber and charcoal dealers and the number will be cut down and licences will have a security mark so that they are not duplicated as it has been the practice before.

The minister said this while touring the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) projects in the northern Albertine forests in Kyenjojo and Kibaale districts last week. “I came taking photos all the way from Kampala and I have noticed we have degraded almost everything that God gave us. 

The new dealers will therefore first have to prove that they have planted several acres of trees and must be in associations,” Ms Mutagamba said

Regulation measures
She said in areas where timber cutting and charcoal burning takes place, the district authorities will first quantify how much harvestable timber they have and then recommend the people they know will not go beyond the recommended volumes.

Ms Mutagamba advised district forest officers countrywide to plant one acre of tree nursery beds every year so that the ministry can support them. She observed that deforestation is going on in the countryside because agricultural extension staff no longer advise farmers on what to do with the available but unutilised land.

She said the ministry issued a three months ban in March after it learnt that some officials of the National Forestry Authority were conniving with other dealers and some forest officers in dubious timber dealings. 

“But the three months have elapsed so we have come up with new measures. We shall issue fresh licences with security marks, register fewer operators and many tree planters,” she told a gathering at Pachwa Sub-county in Kibaale.

During her tour in Kibaale, the minister witnessed the signing of the MoU between Pachwa Linda Ebyobuhangwa Association and National Forest Authority, which later signed another MoU with Kikonda Tulinde Ebyobuhangwa Association in Kiryanga Sub-county.

fbasiime@ug.nationmedia.com