Oyam district forestry department are finding out difficult to restore acres of forest in reserves that have been encroached on by the local community.
The forestry reserves gazetted in from the 1940s to 1960s during British colonial rule in Uganda under the central government amounted to over 3,464 acers of land in 16 forest reserves in Oyam district. Many more were gazetted under the local governments.
Lawrence Okullo the district forestry officer Oyam district said over one hundred acres of forest reserves were encroached by local community claiming the land belong to their grandparents and they are not willing to leave it; some have put up permanent settlements while others are carrying out agricultural activities.
“We did demarcation together with local community and the leaders, but since they are not willing to leaves the reserve areas, we are planning to evict them forcefully”, Okullo noted.
“Most of our reserves lands have marl stones, but because of the local politicians’s bad behavior, they are encouraging locals to encroach on the land without our permission”, okullo asserted.
Lack of manpower by the forestry department is also contributing failure to preserve and restore forestry. “Government is not fully funding the forestry department, making monitoring forest reserves by our workers difficult,” Okullo noted.
Some locals around forestry reserves however told URN that for over ten years, they have been cultivating the land and they have no other place they can relocate to for farming activities.
Although Benson Walter Dilla Oyuku, the Oyam district chairperson told URN that his office isn’t aware of the report concerning the encroachers encroaching into the forestry reserves, he stated firmly that the law is clear. “Any forest reserves gazetted belong to forestry department, locals or any development without permission are not allowed to be inside the reserves areas,” Dilla said.
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