Conservationists have branded a decision by the Ugandan high court to allow swathes of forest to be cleared for a sugarcane plantation “an unforgivable shame for all people”. Work to clear 900 hectares of Bugoma Forest Reserve, in Hoima, began last month after the court ruled that the land, leased by Hoima Sugar Company Ltd, lay outside the protected area of the forest. The court ordered the National Forestry Authority (NFA), which manages it, to vacate the land and remove the military officers who had been guarding it. The NFA has appealed the decision. The land was leased to Hoima Sugar, which has a 70% shareholding in Kinyara Sugar Works in neighbouring Masindi district, in 2016 for 99 years by Solomon Iguru Gafabusa, king of the ancient kingdom of Bunyoro-Kitara. He said the leased area was ancestral land and not part of the protected forest.
SOURCE: BUSINESS DAY LIVE
More Stories
Wellness Destinations in Africa to Get away from it All
Africa’s Missing Middle in Tech Funding
Eto’o Joins the Presidential Race
Sign Language Across Africa
Algeria Lays Bouteflika to Rest
The Women trying to Revolutionise Agriculture in West Africa
A Wide Range of African Organisations have Come together to Demand Change
Nairobi Sees Rising Poaching Incidents
Benin, where Innovation and Recycling Meet
African Leaders Sound Alarm at the UN General Assembly
Nationalising Rabat’s State Entities
When One Trial Ends Another Opens for South Africa’s Former President