Uganda's forests 'to disappear by 2050'
Urbanisation and a rapidly growing population reliant on wood for fuel have forced Uganda’s forests into retreat, according to a recent report by the National Environment Management Authority, the country’s main environmental body.
Almost a third of the central African nation’s forests have disappeared within the past 15 years, reducing the total area from more than 50,000 square kilometres in 1990 to 35,000 square kilometres in 2005.
Only ten per cent of Ugandans have access to electricity; firewood is the only fuel for the rest of the population of 32 million. This figure is rising quickly, putting the region’s natural resources under even greater pressure – Uganda has the world’s third-highest birth rate, with 47.8 births per 1,000 people.
‘The rapid increase in Uganda’s population has certainly increased pressure on forest ecosystems for... timber, fuel and food,’ said
the report. ‘This increases the risk of encroachment and deforestation unless viable alternatives are found.’
The report warned that if the current rate of deforestation continues unabated, Uganda’s forests will be entirely lost by the middle of this century.
September 2009
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