Conservationists say clearance of Bugomo reserve for plantation is blow to biodiversity and country’s reputation on wildlife.
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 (2,223 acres) 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.
Rajasekaran Ramadoss, agriculture manager at Hoima Sugar Company, said the proposed sugarcane plantation would “improve the standard of living of those people” in the area.
In the environmental and social impact assessment report submitted with its application for a sugar plantation, the company said it would also build schools and a hospital, develop an ecotourism project that comprised an eco-lodge, walking trails and a campsite, and replant the degraded area.
But Costantino Tessarin, chairperson of Association for the Conservation of Bugoma Forest, said: “Whether the land falls inside the boundaries of the gazetted reserve or not … is a merely sterile exercise for primary school students.
“Because the reality is that we are talking about [an] ecosystem of international importance that cannot be discussed in parts and pieces,” he said. The decision to go ahead with clearing the forest was “an unforgivable shame for all people of common sense, not only in Uganda but in the world”.
Conservation groups and forestry experts have long warned that destroying even just a part of the forest’s diversity would lead to a loss of fauna and flora, and affect the water levels of the River Nile.
“We consider this plan not only detrimental to the Ugandan government plans to develop and invest in tourism in Bugoma Forest, but to the overall fragile and rich ecosystem [which] will simply be irreparably compromised,” said Tessarin, who is also director of Uganda Jungle Lodges and owner of Bugoma Jungle Lodge.
Onesmus Mugyenyi, coordinator of the Forest Governance Learning Group, an informal alliance of 10 African and Asian states that advocate for the protection of forests, said investors in ecotourism and conservation “have much to complain about and need the protection of their investment”.
“Moreover, the development of ecotourism activities will have a broader impact on the livelihood of the people in the area.”
The reserve, which covers 41,144 hectares, is the largest remaining block of natural tropical forest along the Albertine Rift Valley and adjacent to Budongo Forest and Semuliki National Park. It plays an enormous role in preserving wildlife migratory corridors.
It is home to 23 species of animals, including an estimated 550 highly endangered chimpanzees, Ugandan mangabeys (an endemic primate), 225 species of birds and 260 species of trees.
According to the survey by the ministry of tourism and antiquities in 2019, Bugoma, which lies about 250km north-west of the capital, Kampala, is due to have its status upgraded from a reserve to a national park, which would put it under the management of the Uganda Wildlife Authority.
Sugarcane is not suitable as a buffer zone around protected rainforest, campaigners say. Photograph: Majority World/REX
“Sugarcane is not only environmentally unfriendly in general, but in particular when it becomes the buffer zone of a tropical rainforest,” said Tessarin.
He said sugarcane was not the best crop to use as a buffer zone around a protected area because it doesn’t mix well with wildlife. “There are crops and landscapes which are more appropriate in buffer zones areas where there are chimpanzees and … almost 10 species of primates, plus other wildlife,” he said.
Forest have shrunk from 24% of Uganda’s total land area in 1990 to 9% in 2015, because of land disputes and deforestation, according to State of Uganda’s Forestry report.
“To throw away Bugoma would be to throw away rain, biodiversity,” said Cathy Watson, head of programme development at World Agroforestry. “It would also be to throw away Uganda’s reputation on the climate, forest and wildlife front.”
Conservationists have launched a social media campaign, “Save Bugoma Forest”, and are petitioning President Yoweri Museveni to intervene.
“It is necessary that the government of Uganda and the national institutions intervene to resolve a matter that cannot be just a legal battle in court and cannot be only about boundaries of proposed land titles,” said Tessarin.
POKHARA, Nepal — Before Binita Bishwokaarma understood Nepal’s property laws, she understood the work required to sustain a farm.
Growing up in the village of Sindhupalchok, east of the capital, Kathmandu, she spent much of her time helping her mother around the house and in the fields while her father worked in the city. It’s a common scenario in Nepal, where gendered divisions of agricultural labor are widespread.
For Bishwokaarma, that meant she and her mother grew maize, potatoes, garlic and other vegetables. She participated in the entire agricultural cycle, from preparing fields and planting crops to harvesting them. She enjoyed plowing the most, but it was physically demanding because the family lacked modern machinery.
“We didn’t have tractors,” she said. “So, everything, start to ending, we had to do with our own hands. It was really hard.”
It’s what many women and girls experience. And yet, their prospects for owning the land they tend are slim: Despite gender equality under the law, in Nepal, property rights rest mostly with men.
Still, it’s women — accounting for nearly 70% of the country’s farming population — whom Bishwokaarma credits most with caring for the land. Throughout her childhood, she saw how dedicated women were to conserving their environment. She explained that many women learn from childhood how to keep the soil healthy and reduce pests naturally through mixed cropping, crop rotation and intercropping.
Farmers harvest paddy at Bhaktapur, Nepal. Agriculture is the main source of food, income and employment for the majority of people in Nepal, yet the majority of land ownership is concentrated among men. Image by AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha.
But these aren’t the only techniques women in Nepal use to take care of the land they use. Bishwokaarma said women use farmyard manure made from cow or buffalo dung, compost from kitchen waste and plant residues instead of chemical fertilizer. They even use natural pesticides made from neem leaves, garlic, chiles, ash, cow urine or local herbs to reduce insect damage. Around the fields, they plant flowers and local plants that attract bees, butterflies and other pollinators to help increase crop production as well.
To Bishwokaarma, women play a vital role in protecting land through agricultural practices.
“The men don’t know the exact process of farming,” she said. “Women dedicate their life to the land, and I have seen that my mother, aunts, my friends, were all experts in every agriculture process—yet all of the property, our house, our land, everything is in my father’s name.”
The imbalance Bishwokaarma describes extends well beyond her family.
The National Agricultural Census of 2021-22 found that just 20.8% of adult women involved in farming in Nepal have secure ownership rights to agricultural land, compared with 42.9% of men. Traditional gender-based divisions in agricultural work are also still common, although widespread male out-migration has forced a shift in these roles, often increasing the physical burden on women.
The inequalities in land tenure are not unique to Nepal, and they reflect a broader pattern that extends beyond the country’s borders.
Binita Bishwokaarma attends a Model United Nations competition. Image courtesy of Binita Bishwokaarma.
Global gender imbalance
Across the Global South, women play a central role in agriculture while continuing to face unequal access to land and property rights. Globally, women account for less than 20% of landholders, and only 37% of countries guarantee equal land rights for women and men, according to U.N. figures.
Yet studies show that women’s access to secure land tenure is linked to higher agricultural productivity, lower food insecurity, reduced poverty and slower environmental degradation. A 2024 global evidence review by the nonprofit Landesa revealed growing evidence that secure land rights also help women adapt to climate change while supporting sustainable forest management and conservation.
George Washington University has reported similar findings. An international law and policy brief covering Ecuador, Mexico, Nepal and Peru stated that secure land ownership is associated with lower deforestation and more successful reforestation. In Uganda and Ethiopia, researchers found landholders with secure tenure were more likely to invest in soil conservation and climate resilience.
Plus, the benefits of land ownership go beyond individual women. “When women have access and rights to land, the economic benefits extend to their households and their communities,” the World Resources Institute reported, pointing to research showing women contribute more of their income to the household than men do, thereby improving education, health and food security for children.
Despite all this, land ownership remains dominated by men, even nonagricultural land. When it comes to Nepal, men are roughly twice as likely to own property, with only about 11% of women owning land overall.
“Even now, the modern law and Constitution give full rights to women, but it’s not implemented properly,” said Tanuja Pariyar, project coordinator in Pokhara, Kaski district, for the Feminist Dalit Organization (FEDO), an NGO dedicated to fighting caste- and gender-based discrimination.
A Nepal woiman separates chaff from wheat on the outskirts of Kathmandu, Nepal. Despite their work in agriculture, many women in Nepal do not have land rights. Image by AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha.
Nepal has introduced a series of legal reforms over the past two decades to reduce gender disparities in land ownership. In 2002, the 11th amendment to the civil code granted daughters a share of ancestral property by birth, but women still lost those rights upon marriage. That was changed in 2017, when legal gender-based discrimination in property inheritance was eliminated.
However, these legal reforms haven’t changed social norms that continue to shape who controls land and who benefits from it. By 2011, about 19% of households reported women owning land or property, but many women remained excluded from key decisions.
“For property decisions from taking a loan to selling something, most of the time the decisions are taken by the man,” Pariyar said.
Pariyar’s comment is bolstered by research that shows gender imbalances in decision-making powers within farming regions can harm not only women — but the community as a whole. “When women lack the tools, information and decision-making authority needed to implement adaptive strategies, the resilience of entire farming systems is compromised,” according to a 2025 study in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems.
“Nepal is a patriarchal system because it’s a historical system,” Pariyar said. “This is a male-dominated society, and they don’t want to give power to women because they don’t trust it. That is the first issue.”
A Nepali farmer plants paddy saplings on the outskirts of Kathmandu. Many women in Nepal work in agriculture, but men hold the majority of land rights. Image by AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha.
Patriarchal expectations
For women like Bishwokaarma, who is now a law student, those norms were learned early.
Although she worked closely with the land, she and many other women were taught from a young age that neither the family home nor the land belonged to them. Instead, all of the property belonged to the men in the family. Since she was raised in a patriarchal household where most major decisions were made by her father, she grew up surrounded by traditional beliefs and social norms that shaped expectations about ownership. Even though women are not legally barred from owning land today, these expectations often discouraged them from pursuing ownership.
As she grew older, Bishwokaarma began to see how those expectations affected her own mother. She said her mother often expressed frustration that despite years of laboring for the family, she remained dependent on her husband because she lacked property and financial security of her own that restricted her from making important financial decisions.
“It’s human nature because when you do lots of hard work and you never get appreciated for that work, obviously you get frustrated,” Bishwokaarma said. “That’s why she told me to get an education and become independent on my own.”
For advocates working on women’s rights in Nepal, that kind of independence begins with schooling.
Rabina G. Rasaily, FEDO executive director, says educating women is important when it comes to land ownership and its benefits. In her view, ownership is about more than legal rights. It can influence access to resources, decision-making power and economic security. Rasaily said that when women gain access to land, the benefits can positively affect future generations through improvements in health, an increase in educational opportunities and an increase in investments in homes and businesses.
These benefits also extend into conservation in Nepal. WRI research shows that in Banpale Community Forest, where women are guaranteed rights to the communal land, women have been inspired to actively participate in sustainable forestry and engage in climate adaptation training. These trainings include forest fire management, water conservation, landslide and soil erosion preventions and human-wildlife conflict avoidance strategies.
(Left) Tanuja Pariyar, project coordinator of FEDO Kaski district, poses for a portrait in Pokhara, Nepal. Pariyar helps marginalized women’s groups that are facing difficulties with property rights. (Right) Rabina G. Rasaily, FEDO executive director, has more than 15 years of experience in social justice movements across Nepal. Images courtesy of Peter Murray.
Understanding their rights
Realizing those benefits often depends on women understanding the rights available to them — yet many women do not, Rasaily said.
“There were some times when we’d have conversations and they would say, ‘Oh really? We can even own land, or property or a building?’” Rasaily said. “It’s beyond their thinking sometimes.”
However, the lack of individual ownership is not always viewed as a problem by women living within the system. For some, security comes through the family rather than personal ownership, which was the case for 28-year-old Mamta Kaushal.
Kaushal grew up with her two sisters and brother in the rural village of Tadapani in Nepal’s Annapurna region. She married at 18 and moved 50 kilometers (30 miles) to Pokhara city, to live on her husband’s property. The house and land where she now lives are ancestral property that have been passed down through generations. Although the property is not registered in her name, Kaushal said she doesn’t see it as a bad thing — she views it as a shared resource.
“It doesn’t matter, the name or register in which family member it is in,” she said. “Because we are in the same family.”
Kaushal works the family’s land. She grows plants like maize, wheat and potatoes throughout the seasons when the soil isn’t resting from the last crop and raises buffaloes on parts of their land. Kaushal sees her work as her duty to contribute to the family’s financial stability, provide food security to her family and keep the land productive through cultivation in order to preserve it for future generations.
For women who do want to acquire their own property, Kaushal expressed how access to property is less of a concern than it once was. She said she has not personally seen many women struggle to acquire property on their own because women can now earn income through wage labor or selling produce, textiles and clothing.
Mamta Kaushal and other women in Pokhara, Nepal, walk to the fields behind their homes to check on their crops of maize. Many women share and rent land for agricultural production to support their families and sell produce for profit. Image courtesy of Peter Murray.
Kaushal also said women have greater opportunities to purchase land independently through a reduction in property registration fees the Nepal government offers for land registered in a woman’s name. Through this discount, women get 25-50% off fees associated with land purchases or transfers, rather than reducing annual property taxes. The rebate aims to empower women by incentivizing them to hold land ownership.
For Bishwokaarma, however, the issue is not whether women can own land, but whether they are encouraged and supported in doing so.
“Personally, I hope that more women in Nepal will not only have legal rights to property but will feel confident enough to claim and use those rights,” Bishwokaarma said. “I think education, legal awareness and economic opportunities are important in helping bridge the gap in land ownership.”
While Nepal’s laws have improved, Bishwokaarma said social attitudes and family practices must also change if women are to fully benefit from them. In her view, land ownership can provide security, promote independence and give women a stronger voice in family and community decisions.
“When a woman owns land or property, she often has more control over her future and has greater economic stability,” Bishwokaarma said.
Because of that, she said Nepal’s challenge is no longer expanding legal protections, but ensuring existing laws are effectively implemented and understood by the women they are intended to serve. Looking ahead, she said future governments should focus on increasing awareness of property rights, improving access to information and creating greater economic opportunities for women.
“If those areas are improved, the ownership gap may gradually become smaller,” Bishwokaarma said. “But I think social change is often slower than political change, so it may take time to see the full impact.”
Banner image: Women work in a paddy field at Uttarbahini village, on the outskirts of Kathmandu, Nepal. Although many women work in agriculture, land ownership is largely held by men in Nepal. Image by AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha.
This story is published through a collaboration between Mongabay and the University of Montana’s School of Journalism. Students traveled to Nepal in May 2026 to report on wildlife, conservation and other environmental issues. You can read more about the program here.
Anti-oil activists under Rooted in Resistance react at the Buganda Road Chief Magistrates Court after one of their co-accused collapsed in the dock during proceedings on Monday, October 12, 2026. PHOTO / BRUCE NAHABWE
The Buganda Road Chief Magistrate’s Court has ordered prison authorities to urgently assess the health condition of Shakira Kasonga, a female environmental activist who collapsed in the dock during court proceedings on Monday, October 12, 2026.
Grade One Magistrate Alex Ninyonzima issued the directive after Kasonga collapsed while appearing alongside nine co-accused activists, briefly halting proceedings. Magistrate Ninyonzima instructed prison authorities to examine her condition and submit a detailed medical report to the court before the group returns for their bail hearing on October 19, 2026.
Kasonga is among 10 activists affiliated with the pressure group Rooted in Resistance. The group was arrested on August 31 and formally charged on September 1 with common nuisance under Section 67(1)(c) of the Roads Act, Cap 346. They were intercepted while attempting to march to Parliament to deliver a petition advocating for reforms in Uganda’s oil policies and a shift toward renewable energy.
The nine co-accused remanded alongside Kasonga are Lucky Nyamadri, Isaac Akampulira, Daniel Mugabe, Ivan Ochola, Enock Opolot, Sharifah Nantongo, Dorothy Asio, Rahma Namuddu, and Sharon Shaluwatino.
In a separate session on Monday, four other activists from the same organization—who were arrested earlier on August 10—were also remanded until October 26, 2026, for their bail application hearing.
Speaking to this publication shortly after the court session, defense lawyer Kato Tumusiime condemned the extended pre-trial detention and overcrowded prison conditions, stating that they pose severe health risks to inmates.
“The prisons have been ordered to conduct a medical examination and file a report in court stating her condition. All these issues are caused by congestion in prisons due to inconsiderate pre-trial remand,” Mr. Tumusiime said.
He urged the Judiciary to expedite hearings and called on the government to upgrade health services in detention facilities, particularly for inmates suffering from chronic conditions such as hypertension and asthma.
Similarly, defense lawyer Doreen Namara criticized the state’s handling of peaceful demonstrators, calling for the protection of constitutional rights to freedom of assembly and expression.
“It is very unfortunate that in Uganda, exercising freedom of speech and assembly leads to arrests as if one has stolen a chicken,” Ms. Namara noted. “We cannot have environmental activists detained for over a month while individuals implicated in major crimes, such as corruption, are granted police bond and bail immediately.”
The Rooted in Resistance movement has continuously called on the Ugandan government to divest from fossil fuel projects and instead prioritize green manufacturing, climate-smart agriculture, renewable energy, and technological innovation to align with the evolving global economy.
The court appearance comes amidst rapid developments in Uganda’s oil sector. On September 2, 2026, President Yoweri Museveni officially branded Uganda’s crude oil as “Pearl Sweet” ahead of commercial production, positioning the energy sector as a cornerstone to grow the national economy from an estimated $69 billion to $500 billion.
Furthermore, EACOP Ltd recently announced that construction of the 1,443-kilometer East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP)—which will transport Uganda’s crude oil to Tanzania’s Tanga port for export—has reached 99 percent completion.
Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja has ordered officials from the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development to repeat the valuation and compensation assessment for land acquired for an iron ore mining and processing project in Rubanda District following complaints that some affected residents were under-compensated.
Ms Nabbanja issued the directive on Wednesday while officiating at the handover of 60 acres of iron ore-rich land in Mufumba Village, Butare-Katojo Town Council, to Devki Steel Mills (U), which plans to mine and process iron ore in the area.
Some local leaders told the Prime Minister that several project-affected people were dissatisfied with the compensation they received, saying the money was insufficient to enable them to acquire alternative land for farming and settlement.
Ms Nabbanja later handed a land certificate to Devki Steel Mills (U) chairman Raval Narendra and directed the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development to expedite the company’s mining licence.
“I hereby order the officials from the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development that conducted this exercise to work with the local leaders and move house to house, piece of land to another and ensure that the raised concerns on under-valuation are fully addressed and everybody is satisfied,” Ms Nabbanja said.
“We don’t want to hear that our investor has land issues here and there because President Museveni was clear on this matter. After two weeks I will come back here to verify that everybody in this area is fully satisfied.”
Her directive followed complaints from Mufumba LC1 chairman Paulo Tibenderana and Rubanda District LCV chairman Stephen Kasyaba over the compensation process.
“Although people in this area are welcoming the investor, they claim that the money given to them is not enough to facilitate them acquire alternative pieces of land for their livelihoods,” Mr Kasyaba said.
He said the district council had already earmarked 52 acres where an iron ore processing plant could be constructed, as requested by President Museveni.
Mr Kasyaba also asked the government to consider compensating owners of land neighbouring the acquired project area to avoid disputes and other inconveniences associated with mining and crushing activities.
However, the ministry defended the valuation process.
The ministry’s chief government valuer, Gilbert Kermundu, said officials had consulted the Rubanda District Land Board, the 161 project-affected people and other residents before setting the compensation rate at Shs40 million per acre.
He said the rate took into account land scarcity in the area and that compensation was calculated according to the size of each affected person’s landholding.
“We paid the project affected people using this measure because individual land size was different as some people had less than 0.03 acres of land,” Mr Kermundu said.
He added that the affected residents were entitled to an additional 30 per cent of the compensation as disturbance allowance to facilitate their relocation.
“Kindly accept what the government has given you,” he said.
The ministry’s Under Secretary, Dr Emmanuel Mugunga, said about 99 per cent of the project-affected people had been compensated, questioning the basis of the complaints raised during the ceremony.
The compensation dispute comes as the government seeks to clear outstanding land issues and enable Devki Steel Mills to commence the planned mining and processing operations.
Mr Narendra appealed to the government to extend hydropower electricity to the project area to support the company’s operations.
He also pledged to employ local residents and support schools in neighbouring communities through education sponsorships and school feeding programmes.
