Firewood from Kibale provides 90% of local
villagers’ energy needs.
over park boundaries in the night and uproot
the freshly planted saplings, undoing any
potential for carbon absorption. And the jobs
promised to local people don’t pay enough.
“From the testimonies of the communities,
the money is not enough to send a primary
child for one term in school. It’s not enough
for milk for one person,” Byakola says.
Many villagers around Kibale National
Park say the scarcity of land and lack of food
caused by the evictions left them with few
options other than to take a job with the
tree-planting project. Still, they appreciate
the opportunity for work, and employees
are provided with food, a small wage,
healthcare, and safety gear like covered
shoes—benefits unheard of elsewhere in
Uganda. Even village elder Mujafragense
worked planting trees. He says that on
the whole, despite the low wages (about a
Byakola and his colleagues claim deals like those in Kibale National dollar a day), the brutal evictions, and the overcrowding, his village
Park are preconditioned on the removal of those living in the park. is better off thanks to the project.
He says the projects have resulted not only in brutal evictions but
Mwandha maintains that tree planting makes sense for Uganda
also in a decrease of important resources for local people, who can and the world. “If I am a consumer in the West, I understand that I
no longer access the firewood and herbs that grow in the forest. “It am polluting the environment, there is nothing in my own country
was promised to the local people that these trees were not going to that I can do to reduce the impact on the environment, and there
take away their rights to access the forest,” he says. But they have. is an opportunity to support a country like Uganda—then why
Villagers living nearby have told Byakola that they have been shot shouldn’t I support it? Not only to offset, but also to improve the
at when attempting to enter park ranger–protected forests.
conditions in the countries where that happens to be.”
There is a lot of hostility between the villagers and the treeBut Byakola believes it’s not that simple. “It is business,” he says. The
planting project, says Byakola. In some areas, he says, locals sneak UWA has already sunk more than a million dollars into tree planting—
that’s major money in a country where
the average person earns less than $300
a year. What makes it “into the pocket
of the local people,” says Byakola, “is
claim deals like those in Kibale National Park are
another question.” ✤
preconditioned on the removal of those living in the park.
Byakola and his colleagues
plentymag.com | 87