Mount Elgon | Tree Planting and Land Rights

Planting trees to reforest Mount Elgon National in Uganda seems to be at first glance like a project that anyone would support. Since 1994, FACE Foundation-a Dutch Organization embarked on a campaign with the Wildlife Authority of Uganda to plant trees in this game reserve park..

This project aims to reforest an area of 25,000 hectares that was deforested in part during the chaos of the 1970s and 1980s under the regimes of former Presidents Idi Amin and Milton Obote. Aside from reforesting Mount Elgon, the FACE Foundation trees are intended to store carbon to offset greenhouse gas emissions from air travel. The National Park has been recognized under the Forest Stewardship Council certification system.

However, the farmers surrounding the National Park last year cut down an estimated half-a –million of the FACE Foundation’s trees and planted crops on the land. Any carbons stored in the trees that farmers cut down has now gone up in smoke. The Farmers have been struggling to get their land back since they were evicted after Mount Elgon was declared a National Park in 1993. None of the people living in and around the mountain were consulted about the decision, which resulted in the loss of rights to their farms and homes. Neither did anyone receive compensation.

Evictions and sometimes violent conflict has continued. In 2002, the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) evicted 550 families from Mount Elgon and destroyed their houses and crops. They were left homeless and without food and were forced to live their caves and mosques, according to reports in the local press.

The FACE Foundation aims to plant trees in a strip around the boundary of the National Park- precisely the land that is contested by the large number of farmers living around the Park. The land around Mount Elgon is green and the volcanic soils are fertile. Farmers grow bananas, maize, beans, potatoes, and other vegetables and fruit trees. Some Villagers grow coffee. Villagers also graze cattle in and around the Park. There are several land wrangles near and around the Mount Elgon National Park that UWA is aware of.

Some steps have been taken to address such grievances of land rights of the people living.
• First Step; acknowledge and demarcate permanent boundaries of the National Park.
• Second Step involves the recognition the North does not have a right to continue polluting.