The National Forestry Authority-NFA has arrested and detained the Parish Priest of Rwemisanga Catholic Parish in Kyangwali sub county, Kikuube district over allegations of encroaching on Bugoma forest reserve and illegally cutting timber.
Alex Obonyo, the National Forestry Authority-NFA Kisindi Sector Manager has identified the arrested catholic priest as Father Rodgers Alituha. He was arrested on Sunday from his timber yard at Rwemisanga parish by a team of NFA officials.
Obonyo told Uganda Radio Network-URN in a telephone interview on Tuesday that the priest was arrested after NFA informers deployed in the area alerted them that the man of God was cutting timber in the Bugoma forest reserve.
They immediately swung into action and found the priest red-handed together with his agents carrying timber from Bugoma forest.
According to Obonyo, during the operation, they impounded over 400 pieces of timber of different tree species including Mahogany and Muvule trees among others from the priest.
Obonyo explains that the arrested priest was immediately transferred to their head offices in Kampala awaiting arraignment before the court of law on charges of illegal timber cutting in a protected forest contrary to Section 14 and 23 of the National Forestry and Tree Planting Act 2003.
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Bugoma Central Forest Reserve, covering 410 square kilometres of a protected area, and a stretch of forest measuring 40 kilometres, is a tropical forest in Kikuube district, gazzeted in 1932 and taken over by the National Forestry Authority in 2003.
It is endowed with a high Biodiversity with 24 species of mammals, 465 species of trees, 359 species of birds, 289 species of butterflies and 130 species of moths. The mammals include monkeys, chimpanzees, buffaloes, Uganda Kobs and at times elephants.
A 2012 Chimpanzee census discovered that 10 per cent of Uganda’s Chimpanzee population was in Bugoma forest.
The forest is also a migratory route for wild animals connecting to game parks and a catchment area for rivers that drain into Lake Albert and river Nguse where government plans to build a hydro power dam.
In 2016,Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom reportedly leased 22 square miles said to be part of the forest land to Hoima Sugar Limited.
The sugar factory leased close to 22 square miles of the contested Bugoma Central Forest reserve land from the Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom for sugarcane growing for 99 years.
However, the National Environment Management Authority -NEMA found 13 of the 22 square miles, unfit for a sugar plantation and recommended their preservation since it’s a wetland and forest reserve.
As a result, NEMA allowed Hoima Sugar factory to cultivate sugarcane on the remaining 9.24 square miles covering the grassland, establish an urban center on 1.26 square miles, an eco-tourism center on 1.97 square miles, and restore 3.13 square miles of the forest.
They also recommended the preservation of another 0.156 hectares for the cultural site and 6.17 square miles as a natural forest.
However, several conservationists have opposed the move, saying the giveaway is not only a threat to the ecosystem and endangered species but it is likely to hurt tourism activities, which are a source of revenue for the local communities and the country.
Bunyoro Kitara has since explained that the land that was leased to Hoima Sugar is not part of Bugoma forest but the Kingdom’s Ancestral land adjacent to the forest reserve.
URN.