B y SAMUEL NABWIISO
Biodiversity
Conservationists are appealing to the Government of Uganda to put up strong
mechanisms that can help in the fight against the Importation of Illegal
Timbers into the Country.
They urgues that the
Importation of Illegal Timbers from the Neighboring countries such as
Democratic Republic of Congo and Southern Sudan is distorting the market for
locally produced timber and its wood product's
David Duli the country
Director World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) told Environment News Uganda that
many forest farmers are not benefitting from their investment because of the
market which is flooded with Illegal imported Timbers.
"Certified
Timbers on the market carries premium price which is an asset to the farmers
but when the market is flooded with Illegal imported Timbers it lowers the
local market price thus discouraging the local people to venture into tree farming
“He told ENU.
According to Duli,
Uganda imports approximately 9000 cubic metrics of high value mahogany
and other saw Timbers from DRC and once such Timbers enters Uganda is
considered legal this makes it difficult to regulate the trading of
timber into the country.
 |
| David Duli of WWF stressing point during the media briefing recently on his Right Cissy Kagaba of ACCU |
The problem of Illegal
entry of Timbers from DRC and Southern Sudan is attributed to weak legal
policies in the country that cannot stream lime timber trade , According to the
recent study on the gap analysis of the Hindrances to effective Trade in Forest
product's in Uganda conducted by WWF and Anti Corruption Coalition Uganda
(ACCU) it was found that the National Forrest and Tree Planting Act of 2003 it
mainly focus on Planting, growing and protection of trees only
despite having provisions on regulation of harvesting and movement
of Forest product's.
"To our concern
the provisions there in concerning the trade of Forest product's have not
been operationalzed as CSO we are appealing to government to ensure that the
provisions is implemented failure to do so Will promote Corruption in the timber
industry" Cissy Kagaba the Executive Director of ACCU told the media
during the release of the report.
Why is Illegal logging
of trees are bad?,Uganda,s forest cover is currently estimated at 12.4%
of it's total land area down from the 24% in 1990, because of deforestation and
forest degradation. The Deforestation has been partly attributed to Illegal logging.
Unsustainable harvesting and Illegal and uncertified wood product's on the
market
According to other
studies conducted by the ministry of water and Environment (2016) indicated
that the combined effect of high Deforestation of about 92,000 hectares and
high consumption estimated at 360,000 cubic metres per year of wood which is
equivalent to 1,440,000 cubic meters of round saw logs at current sawing
efficiency of 25% is resulting in an accelerated imbalance between national
demand and supply of Forest wood based product's
Another study
conducted in2014 indicated that over 80% of the timber traded in the market was
Illegal causing an estimated annual financial loss of about Sh 23bn through
until paid taxes.
