- hot-spots
- deforestation
- Uganda
- Deforestation in Uganda

Problems
Causes of deforestation in Uganda
Uganda's forests contain 109 million metric tons of carbon in living forest biomass. Biodiversity and Protected Areas: Uganda has some 1592 known species of amphibians, birds, mammals and reptiles according to figures from the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Of these, 1.1% are endemic, meaning they exist in no other country, and 3.1% are threatened. Uganda is home to at least 4900 species of vascular plants. Prolonged periods of drought and erratic rainfalls have become more frequent due to massive deforestation. In the past 20 years, Uganda has lost over a million hectares of tree cover—nearly a third of the country's total. Causes of deforestation in Uganda: ● Rapid population growth, Uganda experiences a high population of 34.4 million people and the increasing population in areas such as kigezi, Mbale, Bugishu has led to high demand for land for settlement thus destroying forests like Mabira, Kibale, mt. Elgon forests, etc. ● Forests are major sources of biomass in form of fire wood and charcoal especially in rural areas. This has led to cutting down forests like Mabira, Bugongo and Maramagambo. ● Corruption in the forest department in form of bribes, illegal sale of timber, illegal lumbering, thus clearing mostly soft wood trees like Mafuga. ● Pests and diseases which have led to clearing forests to destroy tsetse flies like in southern Busoga, Bunya forest in Mayuge and kibale forests. ● Over grazing of both domestic and wild animals like kadama forest reserves, Timu and Morongole in Karamoja area. Also Aber and Agwata forests are facing illegal grazing by the Iteso pastoralists. ● Forests are cut down to provide land for industrial set. ● Mining activities foristance gold mining in kitaka-kamwenge, Buhweju-Bushenyi has led to clearing of forests in such areas for the activity.
Solutions
Planting native tree species.
Author: One Tree Planted
Planting native tree species. It is help reduce the spread of invasive species and to retain the soil, prevent erosion, and ensure that other plants have adequate nutrients to grow.
Gallery
7Timelines
2024
June 04
There were 152 deforestation alerts reported in Uganda between the 28th of May 2024 and the 4th of June 2024, covering a total of 2 ha of which 0.66% were high confidence alerts detected by a single system and none were alerts detected by multiple systems.
2023
October 06
Ministry of Water and Environment in partnership with private sector stakeholders including; Uganda Breweries Limited, Stanbic Bank Uganda, ABSA, Roofings, and TotalEnergies EP Uganda among others; Development and civil society partners have once again held a national tree planting day as part of the ROOTS – Running Out of Trees campaign during which one million trees were planted at St Francis Xavier, Bweya Kajjansi, and across the rest of the country. According to an inventory done by the National Forestry Authority in 2017, Uganda has lost half its forestry cover in the past 30 years alone, from 4.9 million Hectares to 2.5 million Hectares. 65% of forest degradation takes place on private land as land owners choose land use change from forestry to agriculture and industry or settlement over biodiversity conservation. Moreover, forestry contributes 6% of the GDP of Uganda and more than 90% of the population depend directly on forests for their energy needs including firewood and charcoal. “Ministry of Water and Environment pledges to sustain the mobilization of private, public, civil society and development partners under the ROOTS umbrella, as a means of collectively tackling the current climate change issues. Geo-tracking of trees is also critical to the ROOTS initiative” Transparency for trees grown is crucial to the ROOTs campaign. Tree-growing organizations have for long relied upon manual methods and tools for tree data collection such as Excel sheets and paper-based field reports that provide aggregate totals of trees grown. These methods are insufficient because they lack immutable evidence or data on each tree grown. Tree Adoption Uganda (TAU), a local youth-centric NGO integrates digital tree data collection for tree growing initiatives. Dr. Charles Batte the Executive Director at Tree Adoption Uganda remarked that; “Digital data on each tree grown enhances transparency and efficiency in reporting, which improves confidence of investors, funders, and the public – thus enhancing participation. Currently, we use the Tree Adoption App to collect data on each tree grown including; an image of the tree, GPS location, date of planting, tree species, and name of the planter. Geolocation data for these trees is used for follow-up and monitoring, enabling us to demonstrate impact over time”
April 09
Uganda turns to bamboo farming to combat deforestation. Some 65 kilometers north of the Ugandan capital Kampala, a lush green bamboo forest, it's the brainchild of former journalist-turned farmer, Andrew Ndawula Kalema. Kalema switched from journalism to bamboo farming to contribute to the reversal of environmental damage being seen in the East African country. Ndawula Kalema says bamboo, which is fast-growing and can adapt to different weather conditions, is key to mitigating the effects of climate change in Uganda. “It can do the job of restoring our environment much faster. It can absorb 30% more carbon dioxide and generate 30% more oxygen and it can create the green effect very fast and it will take pressure off our precious trees," he says. To help spread knowledge of bamboo farming around the country, Ndawula Kalema has opened his farm to learners from different institutions. When bamboo drops these leaves, they leave there down after all they decay and decompose so it adds nutrients to the soil, so it will not need much manure or fertilizers to apply. Bamboo is best known for its strength and durability.
January 10
About 40% of Uganda's public and private land is untitled, according to the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development. Conservationists say the lack of formal ownership documents lets people and companies get titles to protected land - either through ignorance of land boundaries or local government corruption - allowing them to cut down the nation's forests. The country's environmental authority has attributed much of the deforestation to land-hungry farmers, including those active in designated conservation areas. About 15% of Uganda's Central Forest Reserves - which cover almost a sixth of the country - are used for housing or farming, according to the NFA. With more than 500 protected areas nationwide, the forest authority's head legal officer, Moses Muhumuza, said the agency lacked the manpower to keep away encroachers. In recent years, the National Forestry Authority (NFA) has instead looked to the courts, using legal action to bolster its conservation efforts.
2021
Uganda lost 49,000 hectares of tree cover, equivalent to 23.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the East African country has lost over a million hectares of tree cover, nearly a third of the country’s total.
2019
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) undertook a rapid assessment of natural resource degradation around the refugee settlements in northern Uganda. FAO came to the conclusion that a refugee influx led to an increase in the rate of degradation. Tree loss—both inside the West Nile refugee settlements and around their boundaries— accelerated land cover changes in bushlands, as well as woodlands.
2016
Ministry of National Water and Environment has demarcated over 88.7Km wetland boundary.
2004
To revive forestry the government abolished the Forest Department and established the National Forestry Authority (Uganda)(NFA).
1989
Implemented a six-year forestry rehabilitation project financed by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). This project included a nationwide tree-planting campaign and a series of three-year training courses for rural extension agents, leaders of women's groups, educators, and farmers. Britain, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), and several multilateral donor agencies also provided assistance in the forestry sector.
1988
Deforestation was especially severe in poverty-stricken areas. Agricultural encroachment, logging, charcoal making. An additional toll on forest reserves resulted from wildfires.
1982
Burning of forests by hunters, farmers and grazers has destroyed Mwenge forest reserve, mt. Rwenzori forests and Luwero forests. Also many hectares of forests of Aber and Opit in Gulu were burnt by locals.