Thanks to the as usual menace of the illegal loggers and the sand extractors for the Mpigi district’s Wantai and Katabalalu forests’ almost total disappearance from the world map. About 1,261 hactres of Wantai and Katabalalu forests — once a hide-out for the National Resistance Army – has now become a tell-tale for new generations.
Esther Nekesa of the National Forestry Authority informed,
When I took up my position last year, Wantai was already degraded. Now, only 25ha is left of Katabalalu, while half of the 1,900 ha of Buvuma is gone.
Yet, another menace of advanced technology, rather the mobile phones that facilitated both the illegal loggers and the extractors of sand carry out their activities at dusk and dawn easily, by keeping each other informed.
The Lwamunda Reserve, located in Kiringente and Muduma sub-counties, is made up of four forests — Lwamunda, Buvuma, Wantai and Katabalalu — totaling to 7,255ha, of which 5,400 ha have been disappointingly destroyed, NFA says.
Nekesa explained,
The loggers and the community have created a network that monitors the movement of NFA officials. They know our means of transport and the routes we use.
It seems, the law enforcement and the patrolling officers need to be ‘more organized’ than the already organized community cartel of the illegal loggers and the extractors of sand. Otherwise, inspite of all the investments – both security and law enforcements – ‘disorganization’ will one day robe whole of the Lwamunda Reserve of its forests and other resources.
Photo Credit: www.indiana.edu