Uganda’s forest cover fast dying out as tobacco industry booms

“In future we may not have fruits,” said Dr Mukalazi. “Batu and other companies need to come up with mitigating programmes such as agroforestry, growing woodland for firewood and fodder for livestock, which should be integrated under Naro.”

However, when asked about their plan for reforestation, Batu was unresponsive.

The British American Tobacco Company introduced tobacco to the farmers in West Nile in 1927 as a cash crop.

As supply grew, the British built a factory in Jinja in the east in 1928.

The region is also suitable for growing fruits like mangoes, avocados, citrus and passion fruits, which also have industrial uses.

Cereals, cassava, sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes and pumpkins can also be grown in the area to boost food security.

The surplus can be sold in ready markets in DR Congo and Southern Sudan.

The region is also suitable for apiary and cash crops like coffee and cotton, but the farmers prefer growing tobacco because of the incentives that the tobacco companies provide.

Yet regulating the tobacco industry continues to present a unique challenge.

Unlike other environmental control efforts, the problem in this case is a multibillion dollar industry.

For example, while Uganda’s activists fight tobacco advertisements in the mass media, tobacco companies are offering scholarships, contracts to farmers who are assured of payment after harvest, besides taking part in corporate social responsibility projects that portrays them favourably in the public eye.

According to the Forestry Policy of 2001, Uganda’s natural forest cover stands at 4.9 million hectares which is 24 per cent of the total land area, out of which government owns 1.9 million hectares either under the Forestry Department or in national parks that fall under the Uganda Wildlife Authority.

Incidentally, only 740,000 hectares of forests stands today.

It is estimated that 800,000 cubic metres of logs are cut each year.