Special Uganda

DEPLETION OF WOOD SUPPLIES IS A THREAT

LONG-TERM PLAN VISION 2040 AIMS TO RESTORE FOREST COVER TO THE LEVEL OF 1990

In this article we visit the Republic of Uganda. This country is situated on the Equator in East Africa and, starting from the north, borders on South Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo in that order.

Uganda, which has a surface area of 241,037km², has been a republic since 1963. The country gained independence from the United Kingdom on 9 October 1962. The name is derived from the Kingdom of Buganda, which covers part of the south of the country and includes the capital Kampala. Apart from Buganda, there are four other kingdoms in Uganda, namely Ankole, Bunyoro-Kitara, Busoga, and Toro. The country is subdivided politically into 77 districts spread over four geographical regions. Uganda has had the same leadership for several decades and Yoweri Kaguta Museveni (now aged 77) has been president since 29 January 1986.

Geographical and other features

Before we turn the subject specifically towards wood, we would point out that you can meet about 40 peoples and tribes in this country. It’s worth mentioning that the south-east of Uganda houses the biggest

lake in Africa, the renowned Lake Victoria (over half of this lake is located within the territory of Uganda, whilst the rest belongs to the neighbouring countries of Tanzania and Kenya). The capital Kampala is the unmistakable industrial (and administrative) centre of the country and the city has the unusual feature of being spread over seven hills (the name literally means ‘the hills of antelopes’). A second important centre is Entebbe, a suburb of Kampala about 40 kilometres from Lake Victoria where the international airport is located. Other cities of note include Lira, Mbale, and Soroti and a special feature is that the most densely populated areas are found around Lake Victoria.

When we talk about Uganda, we cannot ignore the various (wild life) parks. The biggest one is the Murchison Falls National Park, which has a surface area of 3,860km² and is sometimes called Kabalega Falls. Then there are other areas such as the 766km² Kibale Forest National Park, the snowy tops of Mount Rwenzori ('Mountains of the Moon') which provide 3% of the population with water thanks to their melt water, the almost 2,000m² Queen Elizabeth National Park, and Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in the south-west on the border with the Virunga National Park in Congo.

Uganda wood asset and forest resources accounts

To cover the wood narrative, we refer to a document from June 2020 called ‘Uganda wood asset and forest resources accounts’. This document was drafted under the Natural Capital Accounting programme (NCA), a venture between the Ugandan government and the Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services’ (WAVES) of the World Bank, and it paints a rather bleak picture.

This report primarily makes it clear that Ugandan forests are a major cherished possession with several environmental, social, and economic benefits. They provide for the country’s need for wood fuel, wood, and posts, offer habitats for flora and fauna, and help to limit climate change. The forest eco systems are Uganda’s major source of energy, since woody biomass accounts for 78% of the energy production. Several rural communities depend heavily on forest eco systems, whilst Uganda’s nature reserve tourism is largely dependent on the integrity of the tropical high forests and forests which sustain a rich biodiversity and form a habitat for wild animals.

Vision 2040

National statistics currently show that the forestry sector contributes 4% to Uganda’s gross domestic product, but research suggests that this contribution is closer to 8%. This is because, according to the report, the various findings often seem to be based on unreliable extrapolations of case studies.

It’s important to remember that the country has a long-term plan, the so called Vision 2040. The aim here is to restore Ugandan forest cover to the level of 1990 when 24% of the country was forest.

Five classes of forest land cover

The country’s available stocks are accommodated in five classes of forest land cover: hardwood, hardwood plantations, softwood plantations, tropical high forest, and forest areas. There are some extra supplies of wood in the vegetation outside the forests such as the bush lands, grasslands, wetlands, farmlands, and built-up areas.

The supplies are subdivided into wood stocks which are available for supply and those which are not available for supply. The calculations of the wood supply for all classes of ground cover indicate a reduction of 45% of the nationally aggregated wood supply between 1990 and 2015, from 355.5 million tonnes to 197.1 million tonnes. After an initial increase in wood biomass by 4% between 1990 and 2000, the national supply fell by 42.5% between 2000 and 2005. Despite a modest recovery of 3% between 2005 and 2010, the total supply fell again by 9% between 2010 and 2015.

After a slow decrease of supplies before 2000, the subsequent faster decrease in supplies led to a drop of 53% between 2000 and 2015 of the wood available for supply, from 224.6 million tonnes to 91.5 million tonnes. The shortage of wood during this period was 22 times greater, from a relatively small shortage of 1.6 million tonnes in 2000 to 35 million tonnes in 2015. This growing shortage in the supply has led to initiatives to reduce the shortage, with forestry programmes and larger-scale programmes for forest restoration. A combination of state and private investments have ensured a doubling of the wood stock in plantations, from 858,000 million tonnes in 2005 to 1.7 million tonnes in 2015. Despite these useful additions, the wood supply still fell by a much greater 14.4 million tonnes during the same period. One interesting finding is that two thirds of the decrease in the national wood supplies between 1990 and 2015 took place on private land. Despite this considerable loss, 40% of the total supply of wood was still located on private land in 2015.

Long-term drop

The long-term drop in wood supplies can be explained partly by a reduction in forest cover, but a comparison of trends in forest cover and wood supplies leads us to assume that other factors are involved. Those factors include forestry sector policy, legislation reforms, and the increased demand for wood products, which has yielded a growing shortage. The particularly drastic reduction in the supplies between 2000 and 2005 was probably the result of reforms in forestry governance. This has led to less technical and legislative support for forests on private land and for more remote central forest reserves. To sum up, you can say that the greater share of the production of wood fuel and sawn wood and transport takes place without a permit, so it is actually unlawful.

Wood supply threatens to run out

After our visit to the country, if we put together the various findings, it has to be said that the wood supply will simply run out if there is no new investment in wood sources. Moreover, the supply and consumption charts also show that Uganda’s trade deficit in wood products (the difference between export and import) decreased by a factor of 8.8 between 2000 and 2015.

The report also states that national demand for wood will more than double by 2040 as compared to 2015 due to growing demand for wood products as a result of population growth and urbanisation.

We’re talking here about a rise from 48 million to 105 million tonnes per annum. Forecasts suggest that the sustainable wood supply from areas defined as forest area will be completely exhausted by 2025 so that by 2030 there will be an annual wood shortage of 72,600 tonnes. Wood available for supply from forests will decrease to just three million tonnes by 2040, less than 3% of the total demand in 2040. As a result, the biggest share of future wood production will have to shift to areas which are reserved for forest and wild life conservation.