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Trees for Global Benefits: “Climate neutral” burgers in Sweden. Starvation in Uganda

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2 years ago

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The Swedish fast food chain Max Burgers AB claims to have had more than three million trees planted in the tropics. “Planting trees is an effective way to remove carbon dioxide,” the company states on its website. “Since 2018, MAX has been funding trees that capture the equivalent of 110% of our entire value chain’s greenhouse gas emissions.”

But a new investigation by Staffan Lindberg in the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet reveals that some of the farmers in Uganda who planted trees for Max Burgers carbon credits are now cutting down the trees and making them into charcoal. The farmers faced starvation, because the trees were planted on their farmland.

Max Burgers buys carbon credits from a project in Uganda called Trees for Global Benefits, that has been running since 2003. The project is managed by a Ugandan organisation called Ecotrust.

Under the scheme, farmers plant trees on their land and receive income from the sales of carbon credits. It is certified under the Plan Vivo standard.

According to the Plan Vivo website,

The project operates as a market-based solution that reduces unsustainable exploitation of forest resources and the decline of ecosystem quality, while diversifying and increasing incomes for rural farmers and their families.

In 2013, the project won an award from SEED, which was founded by UNEP, UNDP, and IUCN. In a video produced by SEED, Pauline Nantongo Kalunda, the executive director of Ecotrust, says, “The main objective of this enterprise is to combine carbon sequestration activity with livelihoods improvements.”

Kalunda is on the Board of Trustees of Plan Vivo.

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The hunger forest

Lindberg calls the Ecotrust project the “hunger forest”. Ecotrust persuaded farmers to plant trees on land where they grew crops. But the farmers had only small areas of land. When the trees took over the land, the farmers could no longer grow food for their families.

The Aftonbladet investigation is not the first critique of the Trees for Global Benefits project. In 2017, Elina Andersson and Wim Carton from Lund University wrote a study that highlights problems with the project. “Our study shows that there is widespread confusion among farmers about what the project is basically about,” Andersson and Carton write.

Farmers did not know who was buying the carbon credits.

One farmer said,

They do not have many benefits, these carbon trees. They are not easily grown and they take time. I had to replace so many of them because they dried out. They started to dry from the top and then they refused to grow. I wouldn’t plant these trees again, but rather eucalyptus and maybe some fruit trees.

Farmers had to pay the full cost of replacing damaged and dead trees, regardless of whether the trees were damaged by fire, vandalism, insects, or wild animals.

Andersson and Carton write about the “flawed basis on which the local population had the opportunity to make informed decisions regarding participation” in the tree planting project.

Contracts were written in English which few of the villagers speak.

Almost all the farmers they spoke to said they did not know how much compensation they would receive from the project. One farmer told Andersson and Carton that,

People planted trees before they knew how much they would get. And they did not negotiate the price with the buyers. So they don’t know if they got all their money, or if they just got half of it. If you tell prices in terms of percentage, how can an old man understand? They are not giving the correct information. transparency is lacking. Most people don’t even know what they are selling.

Lack of land is a major problem in the project area, Andersson and Carton note, particularly among the poorest households.

“It cannot be ruled out that,” they write, “through the project, poor small farmers risk being locked into a type of land use for a long time that reduces their ability to adapt to deal with temporary crises as well as long-term changes, which in the worst case can mean long-term negative effects on their life situation.”

They also note that payments from Ecotrust are often greatly delayed or not received at all.

In 2019, an article in the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter took a critical look at the Trees for Global Benefits project.

And in 2022, Global Forest Coalition published a report about the project with the title, “A case study on the failures of carbon offsetting”. The researchers spoke to more than 100 community members. They write that,

The clear message from all communities was that the project was not delivering its promised benefits, and participants were growing increasingly bitter and desperate.

The lead author of the report was David Kureeba, a programme officer with Friends of the Earth Uganda.

The report concludes that the Trees for Global Benefits project “is one of a growing number of global greenwashing exercises that are not only failing to reduce the amount of carbon being released into the atmosphere but also inflicting adverse environmental, social, and economic impacts on the local communities involved”.

“A chance to earn money”

Aftenbladet’s journalist Staffan Lindberg and photographer Niclas Hammarström travel to the project area in Uganda. There they find farmers cutting down the trees, to sell them as charcoal.

A farmer called Samuel Byarugaba tells Lindberg that a man from Ecotrust turned up eight years ago. He said Ecotrust could offer the family a chance to earn money.

Samuel signed the contract despite having only two acres of land, and the fact that all his land was being used to grow food. He didn’t receive a copy of the contract. The man from Ecotrust later showed him how to plant the trees, seven metres apart. That was the only education he received about tree planting.

After three years, the trees formed a canopy over the food crops. The trees took the light, the water, and the nutrients. Samuel’s sweet potatoes and bananas died. Nothing could grow under the trees. Samuel, his wife, and 15 children and grandchildren were without food.

He tells Lindberg,

“I used to be something called a model farmer. People came to me to learn about farming and I was proud to show our farm. We had enough food to eat our fill and were able to sell the excess. Now everything disappeared.”

The first payment from Ecotrust should have come in the first year. When it arrived, one year later, it was equivalent to a little more than US$100. Enough for a couple of weeks of food.

Samuel has only received two more payments of the same amount since then. He has been forced to beg from relatives for his family to survive.

Lindberg reports that now he’s cutting all the trees down. He will plant bananas and sweet potatoes again.

“My children have no food”

Rosset Kyampaire is a widow, and mother of four. She has only one acre of land. Ecotrust still persuaded her to sign the contract.

She planted 200 trees on her land. After two years, the beans and cassava withered. After three years, she had no harvest at all.

After eight years, she has received no money from Ecotrust. Instead she got excuses: “This is how white people work,” and “Have patience,” and “It will arrive later this year.”

To survive, she has to work as a day labourer on other people’s farms. She earns less than US$1.5 a day. It’s not enough.

“I am so stressed,” Rosset tells Lindberg. “My children have no food.”

She has already started cutting down the trees. “It’s my only chance,” she says.

Where is the food? Look around, where is it?

Jorum Baslina is a local leader in the village of Kigaaga. He also joined the project. “Ecotrust just wants to grow as many trees as possible,” he tells Lindberg. “They urge us: plant more!”

Jorum says there is no transparency. Ecotrust did not tell the farmers how much they would receive, or why the money has not been paid. He shows Lindberg a contract, written in English, and says that,

Many here can barely write their own names. And almost no one knows English. Why don’t we get the agreement in our own language? And why doesn’t it say how much we should get?

Jorum has acted as a spokesperson for other people involved in Ecotrust’s project. He says that of the 100 farmers he’s in contact with, only six or seven are happy with the project and they had unused land to plant on and were the first to join.

“The rest of us are much poorer than before,” Jorum tells Lindberg. “Almost everyone has started cutting down the trees or is planning to do so. Where is the food? Look around, where is it?”

“We are starving”

Ecotrust came to Herbert Rukundo’s farm nine years ago and promised that the trees would bring money, every year. Herbert tells Lindberg that,

We dreamed of being able to keep the children in school and maybe rebuild the house a little so that it was beautiful, even buying a motorcycle to drive to church. Instead we were forced to starve. Now we’ve chopped it all down and turned it into charcoal.

Last year, Herbert cut down all his trees. Not long afterwards, the coordinator from Ecotrust visited his farm and accused Herbert of breach of contract. The Ecotrust coordinator threatened that if Herbert did not replant all the trees he would have to face the police and prison.

Hubert replied that as things are, “We are starving.”

Hubert tells Lindberg that Ecotrust didn’t want to listen. “Now I can’t sleep at night,” he says.

Mauda Twinomngisha wanted to send her three daughters to university. “I wanted them to have a better life than me and my husband had. It was for their future that we signed up,” she tells Lindberg.

But when the food disappeared, she had to take the girls out of school. All three have been married off as child brides, aged 14, 15, and 16.

Two years ago, Mauda decided to cut down the trees. “Then a woman from Ecotrust came here,” she tells Lindberg. The woman was very angry. She told Mauda to remove her bananas and plant trees. “But we had no choice,” Mauda says.

Wilson Akiiza and Violet Mbabaazi planted 600 trees on their three acres of land. “Now we have no food”, Wilson tells Lindberg. “Ecotrust never explained how much money I would get, only that it would come every year. Now I am the coordinator for 89 farmers who are part of the project. Nobody has food.”

Robert Sunday has also cut down all his Ecotrust “carbon trees” and made charcoal with them. With the money from the charcoal, he will buy cassava plants.

In the 10 years since he planted the trees, he received two payments, of about US$50 each.

He has only one acre, from which he used to feed 10 people. “Ecotrust must have understood that the family would never make it,” Lindberg writes. “Nevertheless, they were pushed to plant.”

Auditor: “Food security not an issue”

Aftonbladet’s research team visited nine farms in two districts, Hoima and Kikuube. All of them planted trees for Ecotrust on land that they previously used for growing crops. Hunger was the result.

One family received no money at all. All of the others received fewer payments than the contract promised. Ecotrust has not explained to any of them why the money has not been paid out.

None of the nine families has received enough money to cover the cost of food lost to the “carbon trees”.

None of the families could explain how carbon trading works, who bought the carbon credits, or how much money they should have received. Most of them did not receive a copy of the contract they signed.

Two of the families told Lindberg that they were forced to marry off underage daughters.

One eight of the farms, all or some of the trees have now been cut down to make way for food crops. The timber has been sold as charcoal.

Lindberg acknowledges that the Aftonbladet research is not comprehensive. Several thousand farmers are involved in the project, spread over a large area.

But David Kureeba, the lead author of Global Forest Coalition’s 2022 report about the project, tells Lindberg that the problem is widespread and systemic. “We are 45 million people crowded in Uganda,” Kureeba says, “and the vast majority are already living on the verge of starvation. They have no land to spare.”

The Global Forest Coalition report is based on interviews with more than 100 farmers. That report came out 18 months ago. “Since then the situation has worsened further,” Lindberg writes. “Why haven’t those responsible reacted?”

Under Plan Vivo’s rules, the project has to be inspected every six years. The most recent audit was in 2019, carried out by Environmental Services, Inc, a US-based company.

The lead verifier was Guy Pinjuv, who has since moved on to become Senior Advisor for Carbon and MRV (Measurement, Reporting, and Verification) at Conservation International.

A 2017 article describes Pinjuv’s US$600,000 house that he built in Nevada on a one acre plot of land that he bought for just US$150,000 in 2014. In the article, Pinjuv describes his work:

“If someone wants to slow down deforestation, I’m the guy who goes and checks to make sure they calculated everything correctly. And if there’s a tribe there, I’m the guy who goes and meets the chief and makes sure they’re not planning a revolution . . . that sort of stuff.”

The 2019 Environmental Services audit report states that, “In general food security does not appear to be an issue and project activities are maintaining or increasing food production.” There is no mention of the systemic hunger that, as Lindberg writes, “seems to be integrated into the core of the project”.

“Africa’s poor, who did the least to cause the climate crisis, will pay the price when we have to change,” Lindberg writes.

Lindberg highlights the inequity of the situation. “At Swedish hamburger restaurants, guests order from climate-neutral menus. In the hunger forest, the children wait in vain for food.”

Source: reddmonitor.substack.com

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Buvuma residents drove off surveyors as they resisted the surveying of their land targeted for palm oil tree planting.

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2 days ago

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June 10, 2026

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By the Witness Radio team.

In Buvuma District, a group of Bibanja holders drove away surveyors and protested what they regarded as land-grabbing for palm oil cultivation. Residents state they have lawfully occupied the land for over seven decades. In Uganda, a Kibanja holder is a tenant who uses land without an official, registered title.

Under the 1995 Constitution of Uganda and the Land Act (Cap 227), Kibanja holders are legally recognized as lawful or bona fide occupants. This grants them significant security of tenure and protects them from arbitrary or illegal evictions.

According to sources, surveyors reportedly supported by the Resident District Commissioner (RDC) attempted land demarcation, mapping, and surveying without following due process. The RDC represents the president’s office at the district level.

The land is being claimed by Mutamba Berna, Bagagga Ali, and Nalugo Swabulah, who, according to residents, began forcibly opening boundaries in May.

More than 30 Bibanja holders report that individuals described as land grabbers are using the Resident District Commissioner’s office to conduct surveys and demarcate land without their consent.

“We have lived on this land all our lives, and now people we have never known are appearing and using the office of the RDC as a cover. They have started forceful land measurements,” Ambrose told Witness Radio.

Residents say over 45 hectares in Kigobero Village, Bukinarwa Parish, Buwooya Sub-county are threatened.

Ambrose Wazaabwe, 76, who was born and raised on the disputed land, never expected strangers to challenge the ownership his family has depended on for generations.

“I only heard rumors that landlords would take our land. Later, they started boundary surveys without our consent,” he said.

Ambrose, a farmer, relies on his five-acre plot for his family’s survival and says he is unsure how they will survive if evicted.

“I mainly farm cassava, bananas, and sweet potatoes. I also keep animals and use the income to support my family of seven,” he added.

Ambrose is among more than 30 Bibanja holders facing threats of a land eviction by a group of individuals identified as Mutamba Berna, Bagagga Ali, and Nalugo Swabulah, who have recently surfaced and are claiming ownership of the land.

Witness Radio investigations reveal that the disputed land is registered under mailo, one of Uganda’s tenure systems. Originally, Plot 1, Block 34, was registered in the name of Mulinya Yokaana (deceased), who acquired it in 1936. Since then, the land has changed hands several times, with recent claimants appearing after a 2016 transfer.

Land documents seen by Witness Radio show that in 2016, Nalugo, Lugoloobi Ibrahim, Bagagga Ali, and Babirye Aidah acquired the land, reportedly without informing Bibanja holders. In 2024, the title changed and is now under Mutamba Berna, Bagaga Ali, and Nalugo Swabulah. Witness Radio cannot verify the authenticity of these documents or whether proper notification or procedures were followed during the transfers.

When contacted, Nalugo Swabulah, one of the landlords, asserted that they are the late Yokaana’s grandchildren and rightful landowners.

The individuals allegedly sought the RDC’s help to claim the land earlier.

Isaac Kizito, another affected resident, first met the alleged landlords at the RDC’s office.

“The RDC called us to meet alleged landowners. We’d never seen them, and they didn’t seem to know each other. Next, boundaries were marked,” he said.

Ambrose says the alleged grabbers never provide documents authorizing them to survey.

“They act illegally and bring no orders. Sometimes they come at night. If right, why hide? Worst, government offices support them,” he added.

Mr. Aisu Charles, former Buwooya chairperson, doubts Swabulah’s group owns the land and suggests their documents may be forged.

“During my term, some claimed to be Yokaana’s grandchildren. When Swabulah’s group came, we found their claims lacking detail and consistency. We asked for more proof, which they never gave,” he said.

Witness Radio contacted RDC Hawah Namugenyi, who is alleged to support the claimed landlords; she declined to comment.

Per President Museveni’s directives, no evictions occur without a District Security Committee meeting led by the RDC and with the Ministry of Lands.

Nalugo Swabulah maintained that she has ownership rights over the land, insisting she holds a valid land title registered in her name and those of her relatives.

“It is not true that I am an absentee landlord. I have documents that prove our ownership of the land. Let those who claim ownership also present their documents,” she said.

Musagala Atanansi, land rights defender and Buwooya Sub-county chairperson, said Buvuma has long faced illegal land evictions by absent landlords.

“Some land grabbers seize land fraudulently. I have never seen Nalugo and her group as locals. They now market the land for sale. We, as leaders, ask—what’s the rush?” he said.

 

Related posts:

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World Environment Day 2026: Environmental Advocates warn of rising ecological costs arising from Uganda’s land-based investments.

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4 days ago

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June 8, 2026

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By the Witness Radio team

As Uganda faces mounting environmental pressures, environmental advocates warn that the country’s rapid surge in land-based investments is driving ecological destruction and increasing rural communities’ vulnerability.

Among the most controversial of these investments is the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), which environmentalists, human rights defenders, and affected communities say is intensifying ecological risks while triggering a wave of repression against those who oppose it.

The $5 billion EACOP project, led by TotalEnergies and partners, spans 1,444 kilometers from Hoima to Tanga. It passes through diverse ecosystems and has affected thousands through land acquisition. Experts warn that the pipeline threatens sensitive environments and may increase carbon emissions.

There has been a price to pay for opposing the project. More than 150 environmental and human rights activists have reportedly been arrested and charged in Uganda for protesting EACOP and related oil developments for their negative impacts. Michel Forst, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders, last year criticizedcriticized TotalEnergies for “continually failing to protect environmental defenders adequately” and expressed concern about the project.

For many advocates, EACOP is more than just a controversial oil pipeline. This represents a new development model in Uganda in which large-scale land investments are being prioritized over environmental protection, community rights, and long-term climate resilience.

As Uganda joins the rest of the world to mark World Environment Day 2026, organizations such as Witness Radio Uganda warn that poorly planned and poorly regulated land-based investments threaten to worsen the country’s ongoing ecological crisis.

From commercial agriculture and industrial tree plantations to carbon offset projects, mining operations, and large-scale infrastructure developments, forests, wetlands, and customary lands are being transformed into investment zones at unprecedented rates. While these projects are often promoted as engines of economic growth or climate solutions, environmental defenders argue that they are accelerating deforestation, biodiversity loss, land dispossession, and climate vulnerability.

According to the Land Matrix Initiative, more than 370,000 hectares of land in Uganda have been acquired through large-scale land deals in recent years, reflecting a broader trend of intensifying pressure on land and natural resources. Although these investments are often framed as pathways to modernization, critics argue that they are reshaping land use in ways that undermine ecological stability and local food systems.

The organization cited several examples of investments whose activities raise environmental concerns. In districts such as Mubende, the Namwasa Forest Reserve has been converted into industrial tree plantations dominated by eucalyptus and pine species. Communities and environmental researchers warn that such monoculture plantations reduce biodiversity, alter water cycles, and degrade soil quality over time.

Similar patterns are emerging in other parts of the country. In Kiryandongo District, for instance, commercial agriculture has expanded into previously forested and communal lands, accelerating land degradation and restricting community access to resources on which many households depend for survival.

At the same time, carbon offset and so-called “climate-smart” agriculture projects have proliferated in Uganda in recent years. They are often promoted as the solution to climate change. However, critics say they are changing land use from food production to monoculture plantations or to carbon markets controlled from outside. Smallholder farmers often sign contracts without understanding the long-term implications, sparking concerns about land control, benefit sharing, and food sovereignty.

Witness Radio Uganda warns that unless urgent action is taken, the country risks locking itself into a development pathway that deepens both ecological breakdown and social inequality.

“Uganda is facing a silent but accelerating ecological emergency,” says Jeff Wokulira Ssebaggala, Executive Director of Witness Radio Uganda, adding that “What is being promoted as development is too often the systematic conversion of forests, wetlands, and community lands into investment zones that weaken both people and nature. If we continue on this path, we are not just losing biodiversity but also undermining the very foundation of rural survival and climate resilience.”

On World Environment Day 2026, Witness Radio is calling for urgent structural reforms, including an immediate halt to the allocation of forests, wetlands, and ecologically sensitive ecosystems to private investors; stronger independent environmental governance; recognition and enforcement of customary land rights; full implementation of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC); and an end to the criminalization of environmental and land rights defenders.

Related posts:

Land-based investments in Uganda are weakening the country’s ecological resilience. Witness Radio Statement on the International Human Rights Day 2024: A call to the government of Uganda to protect Land and Environmental Rights Defenders and Communities affected by irresponsible land-based investments in Uganda. Women’s Climate Assembly, 2024: African women vow to protect human and environmental rights amidst an influx of destructive land-based investments on the continent. Know Your Land rights and environmental protection laws: a case of a refreshed radio program transferring legal knowledge to local and indigenous communities to protect their land and the environment at Witness Radio. Why Uganda, the World should protect Bugoma forest at all costs
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EU delegation praises Uganda’s oil and gas progress amid mounting land and human rights challenges in the Albertine Region.

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7 days ago

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June 5, 2026

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By the Witness Radio Team

Hoima, Uganda — On May 7, the European Union marked 50 years of partnership with the Government of Uganda during the Europe Day 2026 celebrations in Kampala, attended by EU members, Ugandan officials, development partners, and diplomats.

It’s reported that over the past five decades, the EU has invested EUR 5 billion in development support, alongside a similar amount of European private investment. This partnership progressed to engagements in trade, investment, energy, climate action, education, health, and humanitarian support.

Focusing on sustainable growth of the EU’s support, part of the celebrations involved a visit to the Albertine oil graben by the EU delegation, with several ambassadors from EU countries, to reflect on the ongoing transformations in oil and gas projects in the Albertine region and on the EU’s commitments to its development ambitions.

During the visit on May 19 2026, the EU delegation engaged selected Land and Environmental Defenders (LEDs) from Uganda’s oil-rich Albertine region who are beneficiaries of the Monitoring, Documentation and Advocacy for Human Rights in Uganda (MDA-HRU) project. The project is being implemented by Witness Radio Uganda and the National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders Uganda (NCHRD-U), in partnership with DanChurchAid and funded by the European Union. Besides, the Delegation visited several oil and gas projects and surrounding communities.

The visit concluded on May 20 2026, with a dinner at Hoima City Stadium, attended by Several EU country ambassadors, Hoima Local Government authorities, Hoima City officials, development partners, and Civil society organizations. Addressing the guests, H.E. Jan Sadek, European Union Ambassador to Uganda, noted the large-scale and importance of the oil and gas developments in the mid-western region of Uganda, but also acknowledged the complex social, environmental, and human rights issues that come with such investments.

“The future is already unfolding quickly. Today we were in Buliisa with TotalEnergies and its partners, learning more about one of the largest industrial energy projects in East Africa,” Sadek said.

He thanked TotalEnergies, its General Manager Philippe Groueix, and the company’s staff, praising what he described as their openness and hospitality during the visit.

“What we saw was very impressive in scale and ambition. We visited the Tilenga Central Processing Facility and oil rigs both inside and outside Murchison Falls National Park, and saw efforts to reduce the project’s footprint in the area. These developments are very significant for Hoima and Buliisa, and for Uganda and the wider region.” He added.

Sadek also pointed to Europe’s growing economic ties with Uganda, noting that European firms remain among the country’s largest foreign investors.

“TotalEnergies is not just a major investment in Uganda, but also part of the broader economic relationship between Europe and Uganda. The European Union remains one of Uganda’s biggest export markets outside the region and a long-standing development partner,” he further said.

Challenges amidst oil and gas developments

However, alongside the praise for the sector’s economic potential, land and environmental defenders raised concerns over escalating land pressure, delayed compensation, environmental degradation, and shrinking civic space linked to large-scale oil investments.

The concerns were raised during a European Union feedback and engagement meeting held on May 19 at Miika Eco Resort Hotel in Hoima District. The session brought together land and environmental rights defenders, project partners including Witness Radio Uganda, and European Union representatives to review project progress and assess emerging human rights concerns.

Defenders told the EU delegation that oil-related developments have intensified land pressure in the Albertine region through projects associated with Uganda’s petroleum sector, including the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), Tilenga, and Kingfisher projects.

Participants reported prolonged delays in compensation for households whose land has been acquired or earmarked for oil-related projects, leaving many families facing prolonged uncertainty and livelihood insecurity.

“People are being affected by delayed compensation processes. Some have even rejected the compensation, saying it is too low, even though their land has already been taken. When people raise complaints, they face intimidation,” Gloria Mugonzebwa, one of the defenders, told the Delegation.

Beyond land concerns, defenders raised alarm over increasing human-wildlife conflict, which they linked to ongoing oil exploration and infrastructure development in and around protected ecosystems, including national parks.

They said disturbances associated with construction activities, industrial lighting, forest encroachment, and vibrations have contributed to wildlife displacement into neighboring communities.

Environmental organizations such as the Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO) have previously raised similar concerns, warning that oil activities, climate change, and poaching are reshaping ecosystems in Murchison Falls National Park.

In its 2024 report, How Oil Activities, Climate Change, and Poaching Are Negatively Reshaping Murchison Park, AFIEGO documented that between 2023 and 2024, more than five people were killed in elephant-related incidents, highlighting growing human-wildlife tensions around the park.

Participants also raised concerns over environmental degradation linked to oil development, including deforestation, forest encroachment, and alleged risks of water contamination in affected communities.

“These developments are changing the natural balance. Communities are now living with increased risks from displaced wildlife and environmental disruption,” Nyakato Hellen said.

Uganda has also witnessed the shrinking of civic space for community land and environmental defenders, particularly those questioning the impacts of mega-development projects.

Defenders who attended the meeting said it has become increasingly difficult to document and raise concerns about land and environmental abuses linked to oil investments.

“As activists, the biggest issue has been intimidation, and some defenders have been arrested in the course of their work,” Mr. Biira Kiwanuka Nassa revealed.

Global Witness reported in 2024 that more than 96 arrests linked to environmental activism against oil development activities in Uganda were recorded within only nine months, illustrating the scale of restrictions faced by activists.

“We used to be arrested when we spoke about violations. We had to demonstrate for companies to listen,” one defender said.

Need for sustained dialogue.

In response, the European Union delegation emphasized the importance of sustained dialogue among governments, companies, civil society, and affected communities.

The Delegation acknowledged that large-scale projects, such as oil development, inevitably raise complex questions regarding land rights, compensation, environmental protection, biodiversity, and human rights.

“These issues deserve serious attention and continued dialogue,” the Delegation said.

The Delegation further stressed that inclusive development depends on communities being informed, respected, and meaningfully involved in decisions that affect them.

“Development works best when communities feel included, respected, and heard. That is why our program has included not only meetings with authorities and investors, but also discussions with civil society, community representatives, and local stakeholders,” the Delegation added.

About the MDA-HRU project

DanChurchAid coordinates the project in partnership with Witness Radio. It was designed to promote the protection and respect of human rights and strengthen access to remedy in Uganda’s Mid-Western and Karamoja sub-regions, where private sector actors are increasingly involved in land-based investments.

Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Christopher Kiwanuka, Director of Programs at Witness Radio, welcomed the EU delegation’s assessment mission, noting that it reflects growing recognition of the documentation work undertaken under the MDA-HRU project.

He said the project has strengthened the capacity of land and environmental defenders to document violations and engage duty bearers more effectively.

Uganda’s Mid-Western region remains among the areas most affected by land conflicts linked to large-scale investments, particularly oil development.

Since the discovery of oil in 2006, the sector has generated expectations of economic transformation alongside persistent concerns over displacement, environmental degradation, and unresolved human rights impacts in affected communities.

Related posts:

European Union Delegation to Uganda visits Kiryandongo land grab affected community, sets a new record. A multisectoral meeting has kicked off in Kampala to discuss progress in implementing the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and other related standards and principles. EU stands behind the empowerment of Human Rights Defenders StopEACOP Campaign challenges TotalEnergies assessment of Uganda land acquisition programme Land and environmental rights defenders, CSOs, scholars, and government to meet in Kampala to assess Uganda’s performance on the implementation of the UN Guiding principles on Business and Human Rights in Uganda.
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