Uganda cancels controversial rainforest logging plan

Uganda cancels controversial rainforest logging plan

Uganda cancels controversial rainforest logging plan
mongabay.com
October 18, 2007

Uganda’s government abandoned a controversial plan to grant protected rainforest land to a sugar company, reports Reuters.



Environment minister Maria Mutagamba told Reuters that the government had officially rejected a request by the Mehta Group to convert one third of the Mabira Forest Reserve for a sugarcane plantation.



“The idea of sugar growing in Mabira is no longer there. We are looking for money for other land,” she was quoted as saying. “A committee of cabinet was set up to examine the plan but did not get back to us. In the meantime, other land was identified.”

Rainforest in Uganda. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. More Uganda photos.

A pet project of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, the plan was widely opposed by groups ranging from government officials to environmentalists to the international community. Critics said the project would destroy a rare rainforest habitat for endemic species, while threatening rainfall and soil erosion and hurting Uganda’s burgeoning tourism industry. Some claimed that government members stood to benefit financially through the illegal sales of logged timber.



The controversy came to boiling point in April when three people were killed during protests over the project. Shortly thereafter Mutagamba announced the project had been shelved pending further review.



The cancellation of the Mabira plan was the second time this year that President Museveni has yielded to criticism over land give-aways. In May the government withdrew the license to Bidco, a Kenyan company, to log thousands of hectares of rainforest on Bugala island in Lake Victoria for a palm oil plantation.