Uganda’s Forest Reserves were created by Acts of Parliament mostly between 1932 and 1965 after the Government negotiated for the land with the respective District Administrations and Kingdoms. This means that it would require other Acts of Parliament to degazzette them for other uses.

The forest reserves were gazzetted to be an adequate estate representing a sizeable fraction of the country. The colonial government negotiated with the different administrative structures (kingdoms) to offer portions of their land for gazzettement as forest reserves. Buganda for instance offered 8% of her land area for gazzettement, while other kingdoms offered varying portions of their land for the same purpose. The sum total of what was offered is to a large extent present day forest cover in Uganda.

A Forest Reserve is an area of land designated, reserved/gazzetted by Act of Parliament for development of forests or tree growing activities. It can be an open land without forests on it or with forests. A Forest is an area covered with vegetation, majority of which are of tree communities, occupying a large extent and in climatic equilibrium with the environment.

First of all there is no problem with NFA; the actual problem is with the law that gives NFA the mandate for its operations. The law limits NFA to only operate in CFRs and these are few compared to the private and local government forests. So basically, the forest cover that is disappearing at a higher rate than before is largely under ownership and jurisdiction of private individuals/institutions and local governments and not CFRs.

Plants utilize carbon dioxide as they grow and store it in form of tissues both below and above the ground. About a half of dry wood matter is carbon (cell walls and other carbohydrates). Forests (after soils) act as one of the largest terrestrial carbon stores because of their big volumes per given area (e.g. in hectares) or biomass which is weight (say in tons) per unit area (e.g. a hectare).

When forests are cut the stored carbon and other elements are released in various forms. Burning them results in rapid lease of carbon dioxide and various nitrous oxide gases.  If forest material decomposes under limited supply of oxygen say under water, methane and carbon dioxide are released.
These gases are known to be among the major human-induced Green House Gas (GHG) emissions linked to global warming effects.

Various areas are gazzetted as CFRs for different purposes including conservation of biodiversity and critical habitats, protection of water catchments, environment protection and production in terms of goods and services.

Most natural forests were gazzetted for protection of biodiversity and water catchments with limited amount of timber production. They are also production centers in form of non-timber forest products and services like ecotourism. These values are to be supplied in perpetuity.

There are woodlands that perform environment and water protection functions and are in some cases habitats to unique plant and animal species. However, most woodlands and grasslands were conserved for future production of timber. Most of them were gazzetted when the per capita forest cover and use were still low and with increase in demand for forest products resulting from population growth, these are the areas now being planted to bridge the gap. Therefore, a forest reserve doesn’t necessarily have to be always forested.

NFA is in the process of demarcating the river banks as required by the Environment statute. For lakes, areas of 200m are being left with natural vegetation and where this has been cut, they are being replanted with the indigenous species, for big rivers, 100m is being left and for the small ones, 50m is the recommended area to be left. This is a standard procedure that is applied in NFA own tree planting as well as the private tree planters.

Trees take relatively long (some species up to twenty years and above) to mature as compared to most agricultural crops.  However, trees are a good investment because:

1. The return on investment is very high in Uganda. Trees can give a return of over 14% Return on Investments.
2. Despite a few risks, they are a good investment for social security for the future such as school fees, retirement package and they can easily be liquidated under financial stress.
3. After establishment, they require minimal investment in cost and time but the yields are high and in some cases sustainable especially where they have capacity to regenerate.
4. It is a social responsibility to create beauty, clean and protect the environment and mentally gratifying to plant trees just like owning a large heard of cattle.

An applicant can be allocated more land depending on availability of the land, progress of other farmers and interest. In cases where there are none performers or land is still available its easier to allocate you another area but some times there may be many pending applicants with capacity in which case you have to be fair and give others a chance.

In such a case, you could be shifted to another area with plenty of land. NFA seeks to avoid situations of communities feeling that someone was given a forest reserve alone when they have the capacity. But in all cases, those interested are required to follow the same application procedures to have a fair process.

As to whether or not one can plant trees starting from the boundary of a CFR depends on the assessment of field staff in relation with the activities on the land and the owner’s relations with NFA. If the owner has demonstrated to be a peaceful neighbor who doesn’t involve in illegal activities in a CFR like grazing, settlement and growing cops such a neighbor would be considered and given priority.

However, a reformed encroacher may be given chance to change the land use of the potion neighboring a CFR. If there is reason to believe that such an individual wants land for other activities but is using tree-planting as a front to acquire the land, NFA would not allocate him land in such an area.

However, such an applicant can be considered for land allocation else where to reduce the temptation for illegitimate use related with land in his neighborhood. NFA’s field staff assesses such applicants to avoid illegal activities through a tree planting license and ensure that boundaries are very clear during implementation to guard against them being shifted.