Opposition is mounting to a recent directive by President Museveni to have part of the Mt Elgon National Park degazetted.

Critics, some within the government, say this will have a devastating effect on the environment and set off a new wave of land grabbing.

The reason given for the move is to create more land for cultivation by farmers in the area, which voted heavily against the ruling party in February’s general election.

However, in the light of recent patterns of land grabbing, there are fears that far from benefiting the intended group, the planned degazettement will trigger yet another assault on the country’s remaining protected areas.

At issue is a February 5 letter from President Yoweri Museveni instructing Prime Minister Apollo Nsibambi that the minority Benet community be allowed to settle in the protected Mt Elgon Forest Reserve and National Park.

The 400 Benet families are landless following a 1983 gazettment of Mt Elgon as a forest reserve in 1983.

This has become a big political issue in the area, prompting the president’s orders.

During the campaigns, Museveni repeatedly promised to settle the Benet issue.

And now, with the ruling party perceived to be losing the Bugisu region’s vote due to the resettlement question, among other issues, President Museveni has acted.

Fittingly, the timing of his move was just before the February 18 election.

But policy analysts say the degazettement exposes the haphazard manner in which public land is given away by the government.

Environmental lobby groups have compiled a list of protected areas that are under threat from politically connected land grabbers.

The list is to be lodged in court to block acquisition attempts by land sharks.

“We’ve compiled this information because Mt Elgon is not an isolated case,” a source said. “We have a list of other protected areas that we know are targeted throughout the country.”

In separate interviews, the opposition, civil society and even the government’s own agencies criticised the Elgon resettlement.

“This is a political directive that will not be implemented,” said Lillian Nsubuga, the acting director of legal and corporate affairs at the Uganda Wildlife Authority.

According to UWA, the solution is not to degazette protected areas in the name of creating farmland, but to settle these communities away from the mountain slopes.

Moreover, it requires a vote by parliament to degazette such protected areas.

“These protected areas were set up by law... if any changes were to be made, they would have to made by Parliament,” said Ms Nsubuga.

Last week, shadow minister for water and environment Beatrice Anywar tabled the issue in Parliament.

She asked the House to block the degazettement, in which the national park will lose 500 hectares of forest cover.

“There is no justification for a forest reserve to be used for anything other than conservation. This action is part of a bigger agenda. They are resettling people on a small part of the area but the bigger chunk will be grabbed sooner or later. And we know who grabs land in all these protected areas, it’s not the poor. What is happening in Elgon is part of a general pattern,” Ms Anywar said. 

At the time we went to press, the government was yet to react to Ms Anywar’s statement. But there were reports that the planned degazettement would be halted.

What at first appears like a measured political action to resolve a long-standing problem could have ecological consequences on the entire eastern Uganda region.

According to UWA, last year’s landslides that killed 350 residents of the mountain slopes left deep gullies in 40km of Mt Elgon’s slopes.

The mudslides were a result of illegal human activity in the protected area.

“The mountain has become a danger, owing to ecological changes. Last year, there were mudslides; it can no longer provide rain... it has been abused. Communities close to the mountain will be worse off when it is degazetted,” said Ms Nsubuga.

Destruction of forest cover exposes the mountain to aggravated erosion.

Coupled with concrete and paved infrastructure that prevents water from seeping into the soil, flooding is common.

A UNDP-funded research project, Territorial Approach to Climate Change, is underway in Bugisu.

There are concerns that the effect of climate change will destroy many livelihoods, especially coffee production.

“This is why the project is focusing on Mbale,” said Ann Weedy, a member of the TACC team.

Equally worrying are the likely effects of denudation. The mountain is the source of many rivers that feed Lake Kyoga and the Victoria basins.

“At our current rate of population growth, people can never get enough land to settle. This action by the president is in bad faith. Why else are these areas protected?” asked Frank Muramuzi, executive director of the National Association of Professional Environmentalists. 

A source within the government said the Benet resettlement is a temporary justification as “there are plans to eventually evict them, only for the land to be annexed by powerful people.”