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Uganda: Municipalities Want Forest Land
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New Vision (Kampala)
26 March 2008
Posted to the web 27 March 2008
Fortunate Ahimbisibwe
Kampala
A TOTAL of 10 municipalities have applied to the National Forestry Authority to degazzette forest reserves so that the land can be used to expand the urban centres.
The state minister for urban development, Urban Tibamanya, yesterday said the request was part of the National Land Use Policy which was approved by the Cabinet last year. The policy will be launched today.
He said the municipalities were Entebbe, Mbarara, Mbale, Soroti, Arua, Fort Portal and Kabale, adding that the forestry authority had approved the request on condition that the authorities would provide land for alternative forest reserves.
"As Government, we think it is a step in the right direction. In 1950 when the forest reserves were demarcated, Uganda had 4.5 million people but we are now tending towards 30 million people," Tibamanya said.
"The population has put pressure on the land and we need to find new ways of optimally utilising the existing land."
He was yesterday addressing journalists at the Media Centre in Kampala.
"It is necessary that these urban centres should be expanded because more people are leaving the villages to stay in towns.
"The law provides that if a forest reserve is to be degazzetted, what is required is provision of land of the same acreage for an alternative reserve," the minister explained.
"Many districts say they cannot expand because there are forest reserves around urban centres."
Under the policy, the urban authorities would use the forest reserves to build housing estates and factories.
The policy, Tibamanya observed, would provide guiding principles for sustainable land utilisation, adding that a fresh demarcation of forest and game reserves countrywide would be done soon.
The minister stated that the Government would carry out tests on soil samples from various regions to provide guidance on how land can be better utilised.
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"We shall provide subsidies for people who want to use the guidelines under the land use policy."
The applications from the districts would soon be considered by Parliament, according to Tibamanya.
The director of urban development, Saveno Katsigaire, said the forestry authority was processing the requests because many of the urban and district authorities had provided alternative land for reserves.
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