RAINFOREST VICTORY: Uganda Government Finally Scraps Mabira Rainforest Giveaway

Uganda has agreed to scrap an unpopular plan to give a
swath of protected rainforest to a sugar planter, the
environment minister said on Wednesday.

Maria Mutagamba told Reuters the government had finally
rejected a request by the privately owned Mehta Group to
destroy a third of Mabira Forest and convert it to
sugarcane.

"The idea of sugar growing in Mabira is no longer there. We
are looking for money for other land," she said.

Uganda's cabinet suspended the proposal by President Yoweri
Museveni to give 7,100 hectares (17,540 acres) or nearly a
third of Mabira Forest to Mehta's sugar estate in May,
following a public outcry.

Three people died in violent protests against the plan,
including an Indian stoned to death by rioters. Mehta is
owned by an ethnic Indian family.

"A committee of cabinet was set up to examine the plan but
did not get back to us. In the meantime, other land was
identified," Mutagamba explained.

Critics said razing part of Mabira would have threatened
rare species, dried up a watershed for streams that feed
Lake Victoria and removed a crucial buffer against
pollution of the lake from two industrial towns.

Scientists estimate some 20 percent of net global emissions
of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that causes climate
change, are the result of deforestation, because trees suck
carbon from the atmosphere.

Experts say Mabira sinks millions of tonnes of carbon.

This was the second time the government has heeded public
anger over plans to trash forests -- in May, it withdrew a
license to Kenyan company, Bidco, to bulldoze a protected
forest on an island in Lake Victoria to plant palm oil.

A spokesman for President Museveni, Tamale Mirundi, said
new land would have to be secured for the sugarcane.

Mutagamba said land had been spotted but the complex, semi-
feudal system of land ownership meant the government would
have to buy the land itself from small-holders.

"We want to encourage investors to do this kind of
business. They can't start negotiating with 30,000
farmers."

The government is trying to draw up maps of land available
to investors in Uganda for sectors like coffee, sugar,
manufacturing or tourism that do not encroach on forests.

• carbon
• Conservation
• deforestation
• Ecology
• ethnic indian
• Farming
• feudal system
• Forestry
• global emissions
• Government
• industrial towns
• plant palm
• Press releases
• public anger
• rainforest
• sugar estate
• sugar planter
• Uganda
• unpopular plan