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Palm oil producer Wilmar launches plantation in Uganda mongabay.com July 29, 2009 Maggie Kigozi told Bernama that Wilmar is expected to expand the plantation project, increasing its investment. "Uganda has vast tracks of land, suitable for oil palm plantations," Kigozi was quoted as saying. "It's a huge opportunity."
In recent years Uganda has looked toward foreign investors to launch an industrial palm oil industry in the country but has been thwarted by protests over environmental concerns. A plan to log thousands of hectares of rainforest on Bugala island in Lake Victoria for a palm oil plantation was strongly opposed and subsequently shelved in 2007. It's unclear whether Wilmar's plantation, which will be located in the same region, will face similar worries. Wilmar's investment comes as the Malaysian palm oil industry has signaled interest in expanding overseas. Facing land constraints at home, Malaysian oil palm developers, including FELDA, Malaysia's development agency, have in the past two years announced projects in Papua New Guinea, Liberia, Brazil, and Indonesia. View Larger Map Related articles Ugandan president continues to undermine national forest reserves (11/04/2008) Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni — a leader who has repeatedly sought to hand forest areas over to industrial developers and undermine the sanctity of reserves — is now blaming the country's forestry agency for deforestation in Uganda. Uganda renews plans to log rainforest reserve for sugar cane (12/21/2007) Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni on Friday revived a controversial plan to grant a forest reserve to commercial sugar cane interests. Uganda cancels controversial rainforest logging plan (10/18/2007) Uganda's government abandoned a controversial plan to grant protected rainforest land to a sugar company, reports Reuters. Uganda abandons rainforest logging for palm oil (05/27/2007) The Ugandan government abandoned plans to log thousands of hectares of rainforest on Bugala island in Lake Victoria for a palm oil plantation, Reuters reported Saturday. Uganda rainforest reserve safe, for now (05/23/2007) Uganda's cabinet has suspended a proposal to allow a sugarcane grower to convert part of Mabria rainforest reserve for a plantation, reports Reuters. The plan, a pet project of president Yoweri Museveni, faced widespread opposition that was capped by deadly riots. Controversial rainforest clearing approved in Uganda (03/26/2007) Uganda's prime minister Apolo Nsibambi has approved a plan to clear thousands of hectares of protected rainforest for a sugarcane plantation, reported the New Vision newspaper, a government-owned publication. New monkey species in Uganda 
(02/18/2007) Uganda may soon have a new species of monkey according to a report published in Kampala's New Vision newspaper. Dr. Colin Groves of the Australian National University told New Vision that the local population of the gray-cheeked mangabey (Lophocebus albigena) will soon be designated as a unique species, the Ugandan gray-cheeked mangabey (Lophocebus ugandae).
President Museveni needs to do what's best for Uganda 
(12/15/2006) In recent months Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni has moved to destroy some of Uganda's last remaining primary rainforests to give land to politically-connected plantation owners. Personally intervening in two disputes, one in Mabira Forest Reserve and the other on Bugala island in Lake Victoria, Museveni has argued that his country urgently needs such projects to industrialize and bring a better quality of life to Ugandans. He would be wrong.
President Museveni again moves against Uganda's forests (12/12/2006) Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni has again taken action against rainforest conservation in Uganda, moving to hand a protected forest reserve over to private agricultural interests intent on clearing trees, according to a report from Reuters. Sugar cane plantation threatens rare forest in Uganda (11/30/2006) A plan to clear a protected forest reserve for sugar cane has sparked controversy in Uganda according to a report from Reuters. Uganda-based Mehta Group, owner of a sugar plantation that borders Mabira forest, a nature reserve since 1932, asked Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to consider a proposal that would level about 7,000 hectares, or about a quarter of the reserve which is home to 312 species of tree, 287 species of bird and 199 species of butterfly.
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