NGO WORK

NFA deployment fails to halt logging, charcoal burning in Kyenjojo

Published

5 years ago

July 28, 2020

Some of the timber from Oruha Central Forest Reserve awaiting transportation along the Kyenjojo-Fort Portal highway. Photo by Wilson Asiimwe

Local authorities claim that UPDF soldiers and the NFA officials connive with the illegal timber dealers to destroy the forests

Charcoal burning and illegal logging persist in Kyenjojo central forest reserves despite the deployment of Police and Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) officers attached to the National Forestry Authority (NFA).

The forests of Itwara, Muzizi, Oruha, and Matiri are the most affected with a number of truckloads leaving the forests each day.

Residents around the forest say that often assorted timber is transported out of the forest on trucks without abandon.

Julius Alinitwe a resident of Matiri says that several sections of Matiri Forest have been cut down by timber dealers and a few parts of the forest have been left.

“We have been seeing a number of trucks loaded with timber and charcoal leaving the forests under the watch of the law enforcement officers and nothing has been done,” Alinitwe says.

Richard Businge the LC3 chairman for Bugaki sub-county which is near Itwara Central Forest Reserve says that as local leaders their efforts to fight the timber dealers have been hindered by the enforcement officers.

“Itwara Forest has been depleted and very soon the forest will be no more all the trees have been cut down by the illegal timber dealers,” Businge says.

Gilbert Kato a charcoal dealer in Matiri trading center says that it is difficult for locals to completely give up on charcoal burning despite its negative effects on the environment mainly because it yields quick money to enable them to support their families instead of struggling for loans.

Army, NFA officials blamed

John Baptist Kansiime the LC3 chairman for Kanyegaramire sub-county says that the UPDF soldiers and the NFA officials connive with the illegal timber dealers to destroy the forests.

“We have on several occasions intercepted lorries ferrying timbers and charcoal from the forests and when we inform the army and the NFA officials they release the trucks and because of that we have also lost morale and we no longer report,” Kansiime says.

Jackson Kamara a resident of Bugaki says that many of their colleagues have been tortured by the soldiers when they give out information about the destruction of the forest.

Apollo Bwebale the resident district commissioner for Kyenjojo says that leaders should come out and report all such cases so that they can be reported.

“I have had several allegations and am going to conduct investigations in some cases where it has been alleged that senior army officials are involved in illegal logging in Kyenjojo,” Bwebale says.

Bwebale says that several forests have been destroyed and encroached on and there was a need for the NFA to open up boundaries because people have encroached on the forest land.

*Col Allan Kyangungu the commander of UPDF’s vital assets and installations unit addressing stakeholders in Kyenjojo last week. Photo by Wilson Asiimwe*

Col Allan Kyangungu the UPDF commandant of vital assets and installations unit says that UPDF works with the police and the NFA enforcement officers to protect the forests.

“We work under very unfortunate circumstances we enter the forests knowing that it’s a matter of death and life some of our officers have been killed the situation is so tempting however if there is any soldier who does not act professionally report him and we shall deal with him,” Kyangungu says.

He adds that there are clear procedures involving the UPDF soldiers in NFA patrols.

“The NFA officials must write to the commandant of the vital assess and installation unit of the army and get guidance then the order must come from the commander land forces to the division commanders and anyone who goes contrary to that will get problems.”

Tom Rukundo the director of natural forests at NFA anticipates that any illegal practice that happens is a result of limited staff.

He also blames the practices on increasing numbers of residents within the forest areas who failed to adopt alternative means of income generation.

“We are going to move to the forests in Kyenjojo district to assess the level of depletion and we are going to open up boundaries because many of our forests have been encroached on,” Rukundo says.

According to a 2018 report by the Global Environment Facility-GEF up to 6 million tons of wood are annually transformed into 1.8 million tons of charcoal. This means increased greenhouse gas emissions, soil erosion and flooding in formerly forested areas.

Source: New Vision

Related Topics:charcoal burning Forest NFA UPDF

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Climate wash: The World Bank’s Fresh Offensive on Land Rights

Published

5 hours ago

November 13, 2025

witnessradio.org

Climate wash: The World Bank’s Fresh Offensive on Land Rights reveals how the Bank is appropriating climate commitments made at the Conference of the Parties (COP) to justify its multibillion-dollar initiative to “formalize” land tenure across the Global South. While the Bank claims that it is necessary “to access land for climate action,” Climatewash uncovers that its true aim is to open lands to agribusiness, mining of “transition minerals,” and false solutions like carbon credits – fueling dispossession and environmental destruction. Alongside plans to spend US$10 billion on land programs, the World Bank has also pledged to double its agribusiness investments to US$9 billion annually by 2030.

This report details how the Bank’s land programs and policy prescriptions to governments dismantle collective land tenure systems and promote individual titling and land markets as the norm, paving the way for private investment and corporate takeover. These reforms, often financed through loans taken by governments, force countries into debt while pushing a “structural transformation” that displaces smallholder farmers, undermines food sovereignty, and prioritizes industrial agriculture and extractive industries.

Drawing on a thorough analysis of World Bank programs from around the world, including case studies from Indonesia, Malawi, Madagascar, the Philippines, and Argentina, Climatewash documents how the Bank’s interventions are already displacing communities and entrenching land inequality. The report debunks the Bank’s climate action rhetoric. It details how the Bank’s efforts to consolidate land for industrial agriculture, mining, and carbon offsetting directly contradict the recommendations of the IPCC, which emphasizes the protection of lands from conversion and overexploitation and promotes practices such as agroecology as crucial climate solutions.

Read full report: Climatewash: The World Bank’s Fresh Offensive on Land Rights

Source: The Oakland Institute

NGO WORK

Africa’s Land Is Not Empty: New Report Debunks the Myth of “Unused Land” and Calls for a Just Future for the Continent’s Farmland

Published

5 hours ago

November 13, 2025

witnessradio.org

A new report challenges one of the most persistent and harmful myths shaping Africa’s development agenda — the idea that the continent holds vast expanses of “unused” or “underutilised” land waiting to be transformed into industrial farms or carbon markets.

Titled Land Availability and Land-Use Changes in Africa (2025), the study exposes how this colonial-era narrative continues to justify large-scale land acquisitions, displacements, and ecological destruction in the name of progress.

Drawing on extensive literature reviews, satellite data, and interviews with farmers in Zambia, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, the report systematically dismantles five false assumptions that underpin the “land abundance” narrative:

That Africa has vast quantities of unused arable land available for cultivation
That modern technology can solve Africa’s food crisis
That smallholder farmers are unproductive and incapable of feeding the continent
That markets and higher yields automatically improve food access and nutrition
That industrial agriculture will generate millions of decent jobs

Each of these claims, the report finds, is deeply flawed. Much of the land labelled as “vacant” is, in reality, used for grazing, shifting cultivation, foraging, or sacred and ecological purposes. These multifunctional landscapes sustain millions of people and are far from empty.

The study also shows that Africa’s food systems are already dominated by small-scale farmers, who produce up to 80% of the continent’s food on 80% of its farmland. Rather than being inefficient, their agroecological practices are more resilient, locally adapted, and socially rooted than the industrial models promoted by external donors and corporations.

Meanwhile, the promise that industrial agriculture will lift millions out of poverty has not materialised. Mechanisation and land consolidation have displaced labour, while dependency on imported seeds and fertilisers has trapped farmers in cycles of debt and dependency.

A Continent Under Pressure

Beyond these myths, the report reveals a growing land squeeze as multiple global agendas compete for Africa’s territory: the expansion of mining for critical minerals, large-scale carbon-offset schemes, deforestation for timber and commodities, rapid urbanisation, and population growth.

Between 2010 and 2020, Africa lost more than 3.9 million hectares of forest annually — the highest deforestation rate in the world. Grasslands, vital carbon sinks and grazing ecosystems, are disappearing at similar speed.

Powerful actors — from African governments and Gulf states to Chinese investors, multinational agribusinesses, and climate-finance institutions — are driving this race for land through opaque deals that sideline local communities and ignore customary tenure rights.

A Call for a New Vision

The report calls for a radical shift away from high-tech, market-driven, land-intensive models toward people-centred, ecologically grounded alternatives. Its key policy recommendations include:

Promoting agroecology as a pathway for food sovereignty, ecological regeneration, and rural livelihoods.
Reducing pressure on land by improving agroecological productivity, cutting food waste, and prioritising equitable distribution.
Rejecting carbon market schemes that commodify land and displace communities.
Legally recognising customary land rights, particularly for women and Indigenous peoples.
Upholding the principle of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) for all land-based investments.

This report makes it clear: Africa’s land is not “empty” — it is lived on, worked on, and cared for. The future of African land must not be dictated by global capital or outdated development theories, but shaped by the people who depend on it.

Download the Report

Read the full report Land Availability and Land-Use Changes in Africa (2025) to explore the evidence and policy recommendations in detail.

Source: Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA)

NGO WORK

Discover How Foreign Interests and Resource Extraction Continue to Drive Congo’s Crisis

Published

1 day ago

November 12, 2025

witnessradio.org

Whereas Donald Trump hailed the “peace” agreement between Rwanda and DRC as marking the end of a deadly three-decade war, a new report from the Oakland Institute, Shafted: The Scramble for Critical Minerals in the DRC, exposes it as the latest US maneuver to control Congolese critical minerals.

Under the Guise of Peace

After three decades of deadly wars and atrocities, the June 2025 “peace” deal between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) lays bare the United States’ role in entrenching the extraction of minerals under the guise of diplomacy. For decades, US backing of Rwanda and Uganda has fueled the violence, which has ripped millions of Congolese lives apart while enabling the looting of the country’s mineral wealth. Today, Washington presents itself as a broker of peace, yet its longstanding support for Rwanda made it possible for M23 to seize territory, capture key mining sites, and forced Kinshasa to the negotiation table with hands tied behind its back. By legitimizing Rwanda’s territorial advances, the US-brokered agreement effectively rewards aggression while sidelining accountability, justice for victims, and the sovereignty of the Congolese people.

The incorporation of “formalized” mineral supply chains from eastern DRC to Rwanda exposes the pact’s true aim: Securing access to and control over minerals under the guise of diplomacy and “regional integration.” Framed as peacemaking, this is part of United States’ broader geopolitical struggle with China for control over critical resources. Far from fostering peace – over a thousand civilians have been killed since the deal was signed while parallel negotiations with Rwanda’s rebel force have collapsed – this arrangement risks deepening Congo’s subjugation. Striking deals with the Trump administration and US firms, the DRC government is surrendering to a new era of exploitation while the raging war continues, driving the unbearable suffering of the Congolese people.

Introduction

The conflict in eastern DRC, which dates back three decades to the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan genocide and subsequent Congo Wars, has claimed over six million lives, displaced millions more, and inflicted widespread suffering. Since late 2021, Rwanda and its proxy militia, M23, have stormed through mineral-rich lands and regional capitals, inflicting brutal violence and triggering mass displacement. While billions of dollars in natural resources are extracted from the area, Congolese communities toil in extreme poverty.

On June 27, 2025, a “peace” agreement was signed between Rwanda and the DRC under the auspices of the Trump administration, with diplomatic assistance from Qatar.¹ The deal included pledges to respect the territorial integrity of both countries, to promote peaceful relations through the disarmament of armed groups, the return of refugees, and the creation of a joint security mechanism. A key clause commits the countries to launch a regional economic integration framework that would entail “mutually beneficial partnerships and investment opportunities,” specifically for the extraction of the DRC’s mineral wealth by US private interests.

Placing the deal in a historical perspective – after three decades of conflict and over seven decades of US chess game around Congolese minerals – this report examines its implications for the Congolese people as well as the interests involved in the plunder of the country’s resources.

The report begins by retracing 30 years of war, fueled by the looting of Congo’s mineral wealth and devastating for the people of eastern DRC. It then examines how US policy in Central Africa, from the Cold War to the present, has been shaped by its interest in Congolese minerals, sustained alliances with Rwanda and Uganda, and a consistent pattern of overlooking atrocities in support of these allies.

The report then analyses the implications of the regional economic integration aspect of the deal, which aims to link mineral supply chains in the DRC and Rwanda with US investors. The last sections examine the prospect for lasting peace and security resulting from the deal and the impact of growing involvement of US private actors in DRC and Rwanda.

Original Source: Oakland Institute