Uganda: Mabira Give Away Not in My Ministry, Says Mutagamba
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The Monitor (Kampala)
2 August 2008
Posted to the web 4 August 2008
Yasiin Mugerwa
Hard-pressed to explain the Cabinet insistence to give away Mabira Forest, the Minister for Water and Environment, Ms Maria Mutagamba said nobody can push her to give away the forest.
"I cannot give away Mabira Forest without your permission," Ms Mutagamba said. "In fact, I want to state clearly that this Mabira Forest issue is not in my office until it comes out of Parliament."
Appearing before the Parliamentary Natural Resources Committee last Friday, Ms Mutagamba also denied having initiated Mabira Forest give away project, insisting that the issue came from another government department which she didn't name.
Ms Mutagamba's revelation comes after reports that the government was clandestinely pushing parcelling out an estimated 7,100 hectares of Mabira Central Forest Reserve to a sugarcane planter.
Legislators on the Committee were concerned after it emerged that there was a Cabinet strategy to "educate" lawmakers and the public on the status of the forest, as part of the wider efforts to give away the forest.
Referring to the April 18 letter, written by Water and Environment Permanent Secretary David Obong, where the NFA was asked to record "an aerial video" of the forest, MPs demanded that Ms Mutagamba explains whether the forest was safe.
"I want to assure members that my action on this forest is required only when Parliament pronounces itself on this matter. But as far as my ministry is concerned this issue is not in my office," Ms Mutagamba said.
The Cabinet suspended the proposal by government to give 7,100 hectares (17,540 acres) or nearly a third of Mabira Forest to Mehta's Sugar Estate in May last year, following a public outcry.
Earlier in April 2007, some Ugandans demonstrated against the government's planned give away of Mabira in a protest that resulted in the death of three Ugandans and an Indian. The NFA rejected the proposal and most of its senior staff resigned in protest. At a stormy meeting, legislators argued that giving away part of Mabira would threaten rare species, dry up a watershed for streams that feed Lake Victoria.
Scientists estimate some 20 per cent of net global emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that causes climate change, are the result of deforestation, because trees suck carbon from the atmosphere. Experts say Mabira sinks millions of tonnes of carbon.
Relevant Links
It was Finance Minister Ezra Suruma who first announced in October last year that the government was abandoning the planned giveaway while at a dinner hosted by the President of the Republic of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo, in Georgetown, Guyana
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