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UGANDA
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Uganda Forest Figures
Forest Cover
Total forest area: 3,627,000 ha
% of land area: 18.4%
Primary forest cover: n/a
% of land area: n/a
% total forest area: n/a
Deforestation Rates, 2000-2005
Annual change in forest cover: -86,400 ha
Annual deforestation rate: -2.2%
Change in defor. rate since '90s: 21.2%
Total forest loss since 1990: -1,297,000 ha
Total forest loss since 1990:-26.3%
Primary or "Old-growth" forests
Annual loss of primary forests: n/a
Annual deforestation rate: n/a
Change in deforestation rate since '90s: n/a
Primary forest loss since 1990: n/a
Primary forest loss since 1990:n/a
Forest Classification
Public: 29.8%
Private: 70.2%
Other: n/a
Use
Production: 14.9%
Protection: n/a
Conservation: 14.8%
Social services: n/a
Multiple purpose: n/a
None or unknown: 70.2
Forest Area Breakdown
Total area: 3,627,000 ha
Primary: n/a
Modified natural: 3,591,000 ha
Semi-natural: n/a
Production plantation: 36,000 ha
Production plantation: n/a
Plantations
Plantations, 2005: 36,000 ha
% of total forest cover: 1%
Annual change rate (00-05): 200,000 ha
Carbon storage
Above-ground biomass: 218 M t
Below-ground biomass: 59 M t
Area annually affected by
Fire: n/a
Insects: n/a
Diseases: n/a
Number of tree species in IUCN red list
Number of native tree species: n/a
Critically endangered: 3
Endangered: 4
Vulnerable: 33
Wood removal 2005
Industrial roundwood: 4,408,000 m3 o.b.
Wood fuel: 42,041,000 m3 o.b.
Value of forest products, 2005
Industrial roundwood: n/a
Wood fuel: $70,000
Non-wood forest products (NWFPs): n/a
Total Value: $70,000
More forest statistics for Uganda
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Before the rule of Idi Amin, Uganda had a relatively sound environmental record. During his reign (1971-1979), the forests suffered from civil and political strife. From 1971 to 1987, Uganda lost 50 percent of its forests, including virtually all of its primary forests.
Between 1990 and 2005, Uganda lost 26.3 percent of its remaining forest cover, and deforestation continues today at a rate of 2.2 percent per year, mostly due to subsistence farming, cutting for fuelwood, and colonization by the burgeoning population.
While Uganda is famous for its mountain gorillas, it is home to some of the highest concentrations of biodiversity in Africa. More than 5,000 plant species are found in the country along with 345 mammals, 1,015 birds, 165 reptiles, and 43 amphibians.
Today very little of Uganda's forest cover is considered primary forest by the U.N. In spite of this, more than 25 percent of the country is under some form of protection.
Pictures of Uganda
Recent articles | Uganda news updates | XML
Restoring tropical forests by keeping fire far away
(09/26/2011) Keeping fire at bay could be key to reforesting abandoned land in the tropics, according to a new study in mongabay.com's open access journal Tropical Conservation Science. Measuring the recovery of regenerating forests in Kibale National Park in Uganda, the study found that suppressing fire allowed the forest to come back over a period of decades. Given the role rainforests play in sequestering carbon and safeguarding biodiversity, the study argues that reforesting abandoned land in the tropics should be a global policy and controlling fire may be an simple and largely inexpensive method to achieve the goal.
National parks do not contribute to poverty, finds decade-long study
(08/24/2011) A new study of Uganda's Kibale National Park refutes the conventional wisdom that parks cause poverty along their borders. 'Apparently the park provides a source of insurance; [locals] can hunt, or sell firewood or thatch from the park' explains Jennifer Alix-Garcia, co-author of the study, with the University of Wisconsin, Madison. 'It's misleading. If you look, you see more poor people living near the park. But when you look at the change in assets, you see that the poor people who live next to the park have lost less than poor people who live further away.'
Uganda resurrects plan to hand over protected forest to sugar company
(08/22/2011) An environmental issue in Uganda that left three people dead four years ago has reared its head again. The Ugandan government has resurrected plans to give a quarter of the Mabira Forest Reserve to a sugar cane corporation after dropping the idea in 2007 following large-scale protests, including one that left many activists injured and three dead. A pet project of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni the plan would degazette 7,100 hectares of the 30,000 hectare Mabira Forest Reserve for a sugarcane plantation to be run by the Indian-owned company, Mehta Group. However the plan is being heavily attacked by critics.
Cameratraps take global snapshot of declining tropical mammals
(08/17/2011) A groundbreaking cameratrap study has mapped the abundance, or lack thereof, of tropical mammal populations across seven countries in some of the world's most important rainforests. Undertaken by The Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring Network (TEAM), the study found that habitat loss was having a critical impact on mammals. The study, which documented 105 mammals (nearly 2 percent of the world's known mammals) on three continents, also confirmed that mammals fared far better—both in diversity and abundance—in areas with continuous forest versus areas that had been degraded.
Famine spreads: 29,000 young children perish
(08/04/2011) As the UN announces that famine has spread in Somalia to three additional regions (making five in total now), the US has put the first number to the amount of children under 5 who have so far perished from starvation in the last 90 days: 29,000. Nearly half of the total population of Somalia is currently in need of emergency food assistance. Yet, the al Qaeda-linked group al-Shabaab, which controls parts of Somalia, has made bringing assistance to many of the malnourished incredibly difficult, if not impossible. The famine in Somalia has been brought-on by lack of governance combined with crippling droughts throughout East Africa, which some experts have linked to climate change. High food prices worldwide and a lagging response by the international community and donors have made matters only worse.
Tens of thousands starving to death in East Africa
(07/20/2011) As the US media is focused like a laser on theatric debt talks and the UK media is agog at the heinous Rupert Murdoch scandal, millions of people are undergoing a starvation crisis in East Africa. The UN has upgraded the disaster—driven by high food prices, conflict, and prolonged drought linked by some to climate change—to famine in parts of Somalia today. Mark Bowden, UN humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, has said that tens of thousands Somalis have died from malnutrition recently, "the majority of whom were children."
Worst drought in 60 years brings starvation fears to East Africa
(06/30/2011) A prolonged drought in East Africa is bringing many of the region's impoverished to their knees: the World Food Program (WFP) is warning that 10 million people in the region are facing severe shortages. While not dubbed a famine yet, experts say it could become one. Meanwhile, a recent study by FEWS NET/USGS has revealed that the current drought is the worst in 11 of 15 East African regions since 1950-51. Worsening droughts are one of the predictions for the region as the world grows warmer.
How do we save Africa's forests?
(06/19/2011) Africa's forests are fast diminishing to the detriment of climate, biodiversity, and millions of people of dependent on forest resources for their well-being. But is the full conservation of Africa's forests necessary to mitigate global climate change and ensure environmental stability in Africa? A new report by The Forest Philanthropy Action Network (FPAN), a non-profit that provides research-based advice on funding forest conservation, argues that only the full conservation of African forests will successfully protect carbon stocks in Africa.
Goodbye national parks: when 'eternal' protected areas come under attack
(03/17/2011) One of the major tenets behind the creation of a national park, or other protected area, is that it will not fade, but remain in essence beyond the pressures of human society, enjoyed by current generations while being preserved for future ones. The protected area is a gift, in a way, handed from one wise generation to the next. However, in the real world, dominated by short-term thinking, government protected areas are not 'inalienable', as Abraham Lincoln dubbed one of the first; but face being shrunk, losing legal protection, or in some cases abolished altogether. A first of its kind study, published in Conservation Letters, recorded 89 instances in 27 countries of protected areas being downsized (shrunk), downgraded (decrease in legal protections), and degazetted (abolished) since 1900. Referred to by the authors as PADDD (protected areas downgraded, downsized, or degazetted), the trend has been little studied despite its large impact on conservation efforts.
Mountain gorilla population up by 100 individuals
(12/07/2010) Conservation appears to be working for the Critically Endangered mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) in the Virunga massif region, as a new census shows an additional 100 individuals from the last census in 2003, an increase of over a quarter. The Virunga massif is a region in three nations—Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Uganda—and covering three protected area.
Environmentalists must recognize 'biases and delusions' to succeed
(10/18/2010) As nations from around the world meet at the Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan to discuss ways to stem the loss of biodiversity worldwide, two prominent researchers argue that conservationists need to consider paradigm shifts if biodiversity is to be preserved, especially in developing countries. Writing in the journal Biotropica, Douglas Sheil and Erik Meijaard argue that some of conservationists' most deeply held beliefs are actually hurting the cause.
Ugandan forest being stripped for fuel wood
(09/27/2010) A new study in the open access journal of Tropical Conservation Science finds that the Kasagala forest reserve in central Uganda is losing important tree species and suffering from low diversity of species. Researchers believe that forest degradation for charcoal and firewood has put heavy pressure on this ecosystem.
Lion populations plummet in Uganda's parks
(08/19/2010) Lion populations across Uganda's park system have declined 40 percent in less than a decade, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
Researchers classify Rothschild's giraffe as endangered
(08/15/2010) With less than 670 Rothschild's giraffes surviving in the wild, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List has listed the subspecies as 'Endangered'. Surviving in Kenya and Uganda, Rothschild's giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi) is hanging on in small isolated populations usually in protected areas where populations are already at a maximum. "[We] hope this will highlight to the world the critical state its tallest creature is in," giraffe-expert and conservationist, Julian Fennessey said in a statement.
Stunning monkey discovered in the Colombian Amazon
(08/11/2010) While the Amazon is being whittled away on all sides by logging, agriculture, roads, cattle ranching, mining, oil and gas exploration, today's announcement of a new monkey species proves that the world's greatest tropical rainforest still has many surprises to reveal. Scientists with the National University of Colombia and support from Conservation International (CI) have announced the discovery of a new monkey in the journal Primate Conservation on the Colombian border with Peru and Ecuador. The new species is a titi monkey, dubbed the Caquetá titi ( Callicebus caquetensis). However, the announcement comes with deep concern as researchers say it is likely the new species is already Critically Endangered due to a small population living in an area undergoing rapid deforestation for agriculture.
Forest loss occurring around Kibale National Park in Uganda
(06/28/2010) A new study in Tropical Conservation Science finds that Kibale National Park in Uganda has retained its tropical forest despite pressures of a dense human population and large-scale clearing activities just beyond the border of the park. Home to twelve primate species, including Chimpanzees, the park is known as a safe-haven for African primates.
Company seeks to log forest reserve for palm oil in Uganda
(01/15/2010) A company in Uganda is pressuring the environment ministry to allow it to log a protected forest reserve to establish a palm oil plantation, reports The New Vision.
Uganda to open its doors to big game hunters
(10/15/2009) Uganda, which suffered a 90 percent decline in large mammals during the 70s and 80s, has now lifted a decades-long ban on big game hunting, reports the AFP.
Saving gorillas by bringing healthcare to local people in Uganda, an interview with Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka
(09/16/2009) How can bringing healthcare to local villagers in Uganda help save the Critically Endangered mountain gorilla? The answer lies in our genetics, says Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, wildlife veterinarian and director of Conservation through Public Health (CTPH). "Because we share 98.4% genetic material with gorillas we can easily transmit diseases to each other." Therefore, explains Kalema-Zikusoka "our efforts to protect the gorillas will always be undermined by the poor public health of the people who they share a habitat with. In order to effectively improve the health of the gorillas we needed to also improve the health of the people, which will not only directly reduced the health threat to gorillas through improvement of public health practices, but also improved community attitudes toward wildlife conservation."
Palm oil producer Wilmar launches plantation in Uganda
(07/29/2009) Wilmar, one of the world's largest palm oil traders, is investing $10 million to establish an oil palm plantation in Kalangala, Uganda over the next three years, reports Bernama, Malaysia's state new agency. The investment is the first in Uganda by a Malaysian oil palm developer. In recent years Uganda has looked toward foreign investors to launch an industrial palm oil industry in the country but has been thwarted by protests over environmental concerns.
Ugandan president continues to undermine national forest reserves
(11/04/2008) Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni — a leader who has repeatedly sought to hand forest areas over to industrial developers and undermine the sanctity of reserves — is now blaming the country's forestry agency for deforestation in Uganda.
Does logging contribute to AIDS deaths in Africa?
(06/14/2008) Logging activities in tropical Africa may pose hidden health risks to wildlife and humans according to a veterinary pathobiologist speaking at a scientific conference in Paramaribo, Suriname.
Dirt-munching helps protect chimps from malaria
(01/10/2008) Soil ingestion helps chimps protect themselves from malaria, reports a new study published in the journal Naturwissenschaften. Apparently geophagy, as the deliberate behvaior is known, increases the potency of ingested plants with anti-malarial properties.
Uganda renews plans to log rainforest reserve for sugar cane
(12/21/2007) Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni on Friday revived a controversial plan to grant a forest reserve to commercial sugar cane interests.
Parasites a key to the decline of red colobus monkeys in forest fragments
(10/25/2007) Forest fragmentation threatens biodiversity, often causing declines or local extinctions in a majority of species while enhancing the prospects of a few. A new study from the University of Illinois shows that parasites can play a pivotal role in the decline of species in fragmented forests. This is the first study to look at how forest fragmentation increases the burden of infectious parasites on animals already stressed by disturbances to their habitat.
Suggested reading - Books
Unless otherwise specified, this article was written by Rhett A. Butler [Bibliographic citation for this page]
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Last updated: 4 Feb 2006
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