NFA starts plan to engage communities in saving forests
The National Forestry Authority (NFA) has launched community committees to help conserve Kasyoha-Kitomi and Kalinzu forest reserves, the move is intended to involve community members in the protection and conservation of the forest reserves which cover districts of Bushenyi, Rubirizi, Mitooma, Ibanda among others. These launched committees are meant to fight illegal activities including cutting down trees and bush burning carried out in the above forest reserves. They also intended to encourage locals to embrace tree planting as a way to conserve the environment. According to the NFA Acting Executive Director Mr Stuart Maniraguha, the recent mapping indicates that Uganda’s forest cover is now at 12 percent losing 50 percent of the forest cover when the country was at 24 per cent in 1990, he attributes the biggest loss of forest cover to privately owned land where owners resorted to agriculture.
