FORESTRY DATA ON UGANDA

by
Department, Ministry of Lands
Water and Environment
Kampala

1. Background

Uganda's economy is based on agriculture and the contribution of the Agricultural Sector to GDP was estimated at 54% in 1993/94 (Background to the Budget). Nearly all exports are based on Natural Resources, such as Coffee, Cotton, Cocoa, Tea and Tobacco. Small quantities of minerals also contribute to foreign exchange earnings for the country.

1.1. Economic Policy

In the past the National Economic Policy - emphasised both the Public Sector and the Private Sector and it created what is popularly known as a mixed economy. Today this policy is gradually emphasising the Private Sector and there are appropriate policy measures to effect this change. Since the 1994/95 fiscal period, the Movement's macroeconomic objective has been to maintain economic growth, by reducing macroeconomic imbalances in the economy. The measures taken to mobilise domestic investment, attract foreign investment and maintain a viable balance of payment situation. The Donor community has been supportive by offering the country grants and loans through bilateral and multilateral arrangements.

As a result of these macro-economic measures, Uganda has experienced rapid economic growth, with the average real GDP growth rate around 6.7% per year for last 5 years. This has been possible because the Ugandan Government has maintained a clean monetary policy, that limits money supply, maintains inflation at single digits, increases domestic savings, expands credit accessibility, and liberalises foreign exchange.

Government has also maintained measures to privatise most of its parastatals and to restructure Public Service. From the 1992/93 fiscal year, industrial production has been growing by more than 20% per year. The Economic growth recorded in the last 10 years has had impacts on natural resources and the population. Uganda's population was estimated in 1996 to be almost 20 million and was expected to grow to 25.1 million by the turn of the century. The urban population of 2.8 million (1991 census) has been growing at a rate of 6.7% per year, whereas the rural population has been growing at a rate of 2.2% per year.

the Forestry Sector

2.1. Social and Economic Impact

The combined effect of high economic growth and high population growth has had and will continue to have a dramatic impact on the Forestry sector. There is a building boom in the country with recorded growth rates in the construction sector of 10/20 % per year, see figure 1 below:

Similar growth rates have been experienced with regard to forestry products directly used by the building industry like sawn timber and poles wood is also dominant as energy source for the production of building materials like bricks, riles and lime.

Other sectors experiencing high growth rates include hotel and restaurants (12-22% growth rate per year since 1990), tea (nearly 100% growth rate from 1990-95) and tobacco (97% growth rate from 1990-95), all of which are examples of growth in sectors which are dependent on fuelwood and charcoal.

Projections indicate that the urban population in the year 2000 will be approximately 20% of the 1991 population. With the increased urban population there will be a corresponding increase in the consumption of forestry products and in the consumption of woody Biomass derived energy. More charcoal, more furniture, more construction wood, will be some of the indicators for increased consumption of wood products. It is important to point out that increased consumption of wood products is only possible if Uganda maintains and accelerates the level of forest resources management and development. Uncontrolled agricultural expansion will adversely affect availability of forest products. It is estimated that land clearance for agriculture ranges from 70,000ha (MoA, World Bank) to 200,000ha (Ministry of Finance and Economic Development). Therefore there is a need for Uganda to balance economic growth with investments in sustainable resource use and management. The consumption of forest products must be planned to limit consumption to the annual forest increment, thus minimising the use of forest capital.

2.2. Forest Resources and Land Use

Uganda has a total land area of 241,000 km2, of this 30,980 km2 is protected (gazetted) and 210,560 km2 belongs to the private sector. Detailed distributions by land cover (vegetation) and use types (National Biomass Study 1996) are as illustrated in the map (figure 2) below.

Table 1. Area Statistics by each land cover type(use) and ownership status

Land Cover (use)	Area Sq.Km	Protected Km2	Private Km2
Deciduous plantations Eucalyptus Conifer plantations Tropical High Forest (fully stocked) Tropical High Forests (degraded) Woodlands Bush Grassland Wetlands Small scale farmland Large scale uniform farmland Built up areas Open water Impediments (barrack)	190 160 6.500 2.750 39.750 14.310 51.070 4.830 83.990 680 360 36.910 40	60 130 4.200 900 8.600 3.000 11.700 300 1.900 10 20 150 10	130 30 2.300 1.850 31.150 11.310 39.370 4.530 82.090 670 340 36.760 30
TOTAL	241.540	30.980	210.560

Source: National Biomass Study, Forest Department 1996.

Note: Under column protected area, the following gazetted areas have been included: Forest reserves, Game reserves and National Parks. Out of the total protect area of 30,980 km2, 12,757 square km are Forest reserves under the Forest Department and Local governments. Table 2 below shows the distribution of these reserves by region.

Table 2 Distribution of Central and local Forest Reserves by regions:

Region	Central Forest Reserve (ha)	Local Forest Reserve (ha)	Total Forest Reserve (ha)
Central	30358	1576	304934
Eastern	56479	1531	58010
Northern	554825	1447	556272
Western	356037	431	356468
Uganda	1270699	4985	1275684

Source Statistical abstract 1997

2.3. Stocking of Forest Resources

Table 3 Shows the estimated growing stock of aboveground woody biomass in various land cover (use) and the totals for the country.

Table 3: Woody Biomass Stocking

Forest Type	AreasKm2	Stock (Wet.Wt./ha)	Air Dry Stock
Deciduous plantations (Eucalyptus)	190	96	912,000
Conifer plantations	160	300	2,400,000
Tropical High Forest (fully stocked)	6,500	430	139,750,000
Tropical High Forests (degraded)	2,750	185	25,437,500
Woodlands	39,750	47	93,412,500
Bush	14,310	20	14,310,000
Grassland	51,070	16	40,856,000
Wetlands	4,830	25	6,037,500
Small scale farmland	83,990	24	100,788,000
Large scale uniform farmland	680	6	204,000
Built up areas	360	8	144,000
Open Water	36,910	0	0
Impediments (bar rock)	40	0	0
TOTAL	241,540		424,251,500

2.4. Deforestation and afforestation

Table 4 shows the projected changes of land cover and standing stock up to the year 2006 as derived from the estimated rates of deforestation of 70.000 to 200.000 ha per annum. The breakdown per land cover is based on expert judgement from the National Biomass Study.

Table 4: Changes in area and stocking of biomass

Forest Type	Area 93/94 Km 2	Area 2006 Km 2	Change Km.2	Stock et.Wt./ha)	Change in Wet Wght (tons)
Deciduous plantations Eucalyptus	190	250	60	96	576,000
Conifer plantations	160	250	90	300	2,700,000
Tropical High Forest (fully stocked)	6,500	5,000	-1,500	430	-54,500,000
Tropical High Forests (degraded	2,750	2,200	-550	185	-10,175,000
Woodlands	39,750	29,000	-10,750	47	-50,525,000
Bush	14,310	11,000	-3,310	20	-6,620,000
Grassland	51,070	46,000	-5,070	16	-8,112,000
Wetlands	4,830	4,500	-330	25	-825,000
Small scale farmlands	83,990	105,000	21,010	24	50,424,000
Large scale uniform farmland	680	800	120	6	72,000
Built up areas	360	600	240	8	192,000
Open water	36,910	36,900	-10	0	0
Impediments (bar rock)	40	40	0	0	0
TOTAL	241,540				-86,793,000

2.5. Forest products production, trade and consumption

Production of both monetary and non-monetary tonnage of round wood equivalents for the year 1996 is as follows:

Table 5: Total Production of major Forest products 1996

Production of Wood (roundwood equivalent in ,000 tons)

Sawn Timber	503
Poles	557
Fuelwood Domestic	13,816
Fuelwood commercial	1,970
Fuelwood Industrial	962
Charcoal	3,305
TOTAL	21,112

Source: Forest Department and statistical Department MPFD

2.6. Commercial Trade

Out of the above table the commercial (monetary) tonnage is extracted as below.

Table 6: Commercial production of wood products

Production of wood 1996 (Roundwood equivalent in ,000 tons)

Sawn Timber	503
Poles	170
Fuelwood Domestic	584
Fuelwood commercial	452
Fuelwood Industrial	783
Charcoal	3,305
TOTAL	5,797

Other wood products such as pulp and paper are imported into country, processed and even re-exported to neighbouring countries. Table 7 is a summary of the import and export values in US$ for pulp and paper products for 1996.

Table 7: Import and Export of Forest products 1996

Imports	Import value
Pulp and waste paper	26,000 US $
Paper and paper boards	508,000 US $
Product Exports	Export values
Pulp and waste paper	55,000 US $
Paper and paper board	384,000 US $

Source: MPED Statistics Department

3. Other Forestry products and roles

3.1. Woodfuels and Wood Energy

Rural areas support 90% of Uganda's population. While 10% of the population lives in urban areas. The rural and urban population use woodfuel for domestic energy needs. In rural areas women and children search the woods for the family's fuelwood on regular basis. In urban centres, charcoal is the main source of energy and is used for domestic cooking, heating, and in restaurants. Fuelwood consumption is estimated at 16.7 million tons, while charcoal production is estimated at 418,000 tonnes (Forestry Department and statistics Dep. MPED). Charcoal production is an individual business using an axe and a panga. There are no large scale commercial producers of woodfuels.

3.2. Wood Energy

Wood energy in Uganda provides 92% of the total energy requirements as shown in the Table 8 below.

Table 8: Wood Energy Production

Item	1996 (,000 tons)	Rate	Energy in Petajoules
Fuelwood Charcoal	16,700 418	14G1/ton 30GJ/1000tons	233.8 12.5
Total Wood Energy Produced			246.3

Source; Forest Department National Biomass Study

By comparison, petroleum imports was estimated to be 451,000m3, at an average density of 0.882 ton/m3, is 39,7782 tons. In energy units, (I toe = 42 6TJ) - 16.9 (petajoules PJ) for 1996.

Whereas electricity generation was estimated to be 500Gwh., converted to common energy units comes to (l Gwh = 3.6 TJ) 1.8 PJ. Petroleum and electricity combined gives a total of 18.7 PJ of energy which is about 8%, whereas wood energy provides 92% of the total energy requirements of the country.

3.3. Wood Supplies from Non-forest Areas

There is no estimate of wood supplies from non-forest areas. However considerable wood is extracted from areas just opened as farmland and from Farm trees or homestead trees and agricultural wastes.

3.4. Non-wood Forest Products

Non-wood forest products, sometimes called minor forest products in Uganda are: fibres, food, medicines, resins, dyes, and animal products. Other services from forest, such recreational activities are also included under minor forest products.

3.5. Recreation and tourism

Nearly all forests are ideal resources for recreation and the Forest Act allows people to enter forests with the consent of the Commissioner for Forestry. Considerable eco-tourism has been actively promoted by the Ugandan Wildlife Authority. The Forest Estate under UWA is 3,230Km2 - mainly of Tropical High forest and High altitude forests. These forests are also catchment forests for Uganda.

The Forest Department is piloting eco-tourism in three forest reserves: Budongo, Mabira and Mpanga Natural High Forests. These forests are rich in biodiversity, they have thousands of plant species, birds and game. Many visitors including scientists have visited the forest trails, either for research purposes in ecology, botany and wild life or just for the sake of enjoyment of the natural beauty.

3.6. Recycling and other re-use of fibre

Only limited recycling is done to produce eggs trays, re-cycled books and toilet paper. Most of the waste paper is left to rot away. Only one private company is recycling fibres.

4. Forestry Policies, Legislation and Institutions

The objectives of the forest policy in Uganda are:

To maintain and safeguard enough forest land to ensure sufficient supplies of forestry products and services;

To manage the forest efficiently to optimise economic and environment benefits to the country; and

To promote an understanding of the needs for forests and tree products through sensitisation workshops, open days and promoting scientific research.

4.1. Legislation

The Forest Act of 1964 is still in use and is currently under revision. Some of the most important provisions of this legislation include the following:

Nobody may reside, cultivate or graze livestock in a forest reserve without written authority;

Use of any forest reserve requires a permit and usually involves the payment of fees;

Local people enjoy special privileges in the use of unreserved forest produce, which they may take from a forest reserve for their own domestic use without a permit or payment of fees;

The Minister responsible for Forestry is empowered to gazette and de-gazette land designated as forest reserve; and

A senior forest officer is empowered to close any area of the forest to all forms of resource use.

4.2. Investment in Forestry & Forest Products

To date, investment in forestry related enterprises is mainly in the forest industries and to some limited extent afforestation programs by the private sector. For example, in the last 5 years, about 50 new portable sawmills with an average capacity of 4,000 cubic meters per annum, have been installed in the conifer plantations. Current estimates put the total investment in saw milling machinery well over US$ 3 million.

There are also three large-scale investors engaged in afforestation work. Their total planting target is about 140ha per year. So far about 500ha have been planted at an investment cost of approximately US$ 300,000. The Forest Department has also been encouraging small-scale tree farmers to establish pole and fuelwood plantation in Peri-urban forests. Their total plantation establishment over the last 5 years is estimated to be around 2,500 ha. At an average investment cost of US$ 500 per ha, the total investment by small-scale tree farmers in peri-urban plantations is around US$ 1.2 million over the last five years. The above contrasts sharply with the Forest Departments investment in afforestation over the last two years with a about 100 ha of pines planted so far.

4.3. Institutional Strengthening and Capacity Building

The Forest Department has been re-located into various ministries over the last 10 years. Beginning in 1987, it was moved from the MoA and Forestry to Ministry of Environmental Protection, then to Ministry of Water, Energy and Minerals, then to Ministry of Natural Resources and now to Ministry of Lands, Water and Environment. These series of ministerial re-locations have weakened the department rather than strengthened it as evidenced by the splitting of the role of forest related institutions. For example, the following institutions all have a role to play in the forestry sector with sometimes conflicting roles and responsibilities rather than complimentary as:

Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA);

National Environment Management Authority (NEMA);

Energy Department;

Ministry industries and Tourism; and

Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industries and Fisheries.

There is no clear government policy for coordination of the above institutions.

Since 1992, the Forest Department has been subjected to restructuring under the Public Service Restructuring Program. The latest development is that government is divesting itself from running the department and has proposed to create a semi-autonomous body to be known as the National Forest Authority (NFA). The assumption is that the Authority will have enough resources to generate its own finances to support its development goals. So far the immediate task is to restructure the department and formulate forestry development programs, policies and legislation in preparation to forming this authority In this regard some donors have expressed interest in supporting the department's initiative.

4.4. Environmental Issues

Sustainability of the environment and forest resource has been one of the core goals of the department as envisaged in the Forest policy stated above. Over the years the department has been faced with increased challenges of realising this goal. During the last twenty years, the forest estate has been under threat from illegal encroaches for both agricultural activities and illegal timber felling. Although all encroaches have now been evicted from the forest reserves, the destruction has affected at least 10% to 15% of its forest estate. There is serious deforestation and uncontrolled degradation of forests which are outside the department's jurisdiction because the department is not mandated to control and manage these forests. Nevertheless, the department is to be held responsible for deforestation and forest degradation in the country.

4.5. Biodiversity and Ecosystem Sustainability

Uganda, together with other countries ratified the convention on biodiversity in September 1993 and by so doing Uganda committed itself to protecting all of its biodiversity resources. In this regard, a biodiversity program was established with the following aims:

To establish a system of biodiversity conservation areas in Uganda;

To develop guidelines for the management of the identified biodiversity conservation areas; and

To promote conservation of biodiversity of species, ecosystems and habitat levels.

With financial and technical support from the Global Environment Facility GEF and the then European Economic Community EEC, 60 % of the forest estate perceived to have important biodiversity resources have been inventoried and the reports published. The results of this inventory has been used to establish 20% of its forest estate as strict nature reserves, 30% as buffer zones and the rest as production zones. Baseline data for the long term ecological monitoring of Uganda's forests has also been established. Currently, Uganda is implementing the cross-border biodiversity project funded by GEF and UNDP.

4.6. Soil and Water Conservation

Most of the mountain areas have been initially gazetted as protection forest reserves (about 3,230 km2.) and now re-designated as National Parks. In south-western, Central and Eastern Uganda, most of these highland areas including public lands are bare due to over grazing and over cultivation. This has caused serious loss of soil nutrients, silting of lakes and dams, which consequently, is affecting agricultural production in the Country.

Adaptation of soil and water conservation technologies at farm level is still a major task, not only policy makers and administrators, but also extension officers in Uganda.

4.7. Indigenous people's issues

There are about two sets of indigenous peoples in Uganda who reside within forest reserves who could have direct relevance to issues in forest management. One group is the Batwa who are related to the pigmies of the Ituri forest in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

This group lives in Semiliki, and on the outskirts of Rwenzori and Bwindi Forests in western Uganda. Another group is the Ndorobos who are related to the Kalenjins and Masais of Kenya. They live on the Mt. Elgon Forest Reserve, a National Park. These groups do not a threaten the forests. The issue is their social and economic marginalisation due to their remoteness and reluctance to participate in governance.

5. The Outlook for Forest Resources

Future projections for both demand and supply have been projected for the forest products in Uganda up to the year 2000 and beyond. Various assumptions on rate of consumption, growth rates etc from various sources has been used as further explained under the relevant sub-sections below.

5.1. Demand Outlook

The estimated demand for forest products in wood equivalent units as of 1996 was as follows: Sawn timber 503,000 t., Fuelwood 18.748,000 t., Poles 557,000 t., and charcoal 3,305,000 t..

The following table is a projection of future demand for various forest products based on the following rates of growth:

Fuelwood 3.5 % in line with average rural population growth and adjusted for increased consumption by industries;

Charcoal, 1% based on the urban population growth rates;

Sawn Timber 6.7 % based on the average Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the last 5 to 7 years; and

Poles 4.3 % based on projected National Electricity expansion programs.

Table 9: Demand projections for Forest products

Product 000 tons	Years
	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
Fuelwood	16,748	17,334	17,941	18,569	19,219	19,891	20,586	21,308	22,000
Charcoal	3,305	3,536	3,784	4,049	4,332	4,635	4,950	5,307	5,000
Sawn Timber	503	537	573	611	652	696	742	792	800
Poles	557	581	606	632	659	688	717	748	7,00
Totals	21,113	21,988	22,903	23,861	24,862	25,910	27,007	28,155	29,000

5.2. Projected Supply

The projected supply of woody biomass for the 13 land cover (use) types in Uganda are based on preliminary results from the National Biomass Study. The data on standing stock and area statement of land cover classes was used to estimate the total standing stock of woody biomass for 1995. No country data was available on growth rates (increments) by land use types, such as plantations, tropical high forest and woodlands. The default data on increments was quoted from the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) Guidelines and Reference Manual of 1996. Other increment data was extracted from the Energy Sector Management Assistance program (ESMAP, Report No. 193/96) of the World Bank.

Table 10. Supply Projections

Forest Type	Area Km2	Stock (Wet Wt./ha)	Air Dry Stock	Increment (ha)	1996	1997
Deciduous plantations (Eucal.)	190	96	912,000	14	1.07	1.27
Conifer plantations	160	300	2,400,000	11.5	2.47	2.55
Tropical High forest (fully stocked)	6,500	430	139,750,000	1	140.13	140.51
Tropical High Forests (degraded)	2,750	185	25,437,500	7	26.57	27.75
Woodlands	39,750	47	93,412,500	4	102.75	113.03
Bush	14,310	20	14,310,000	4	15.74	17.32
Grassland	51,070	16	40,856,000	0.8	42.90	45.04
Wetlands	4,830	25	6,037,500	0.5	6.16	6.28
Small scale farmland	83,990	24	100,788,000	1.3	105.83	111.12
Large scale uniform farmland	680	6	204,000
Built up areas	360	8	144,000	1.2	0.15	0.15
Open water	36,910	0	0
Impediments (par rock)	40	0	0
TOTAL	241,540		424,251,500		444	465

The total demand (consumption) in 1996 was estimated at 21.1 million tons of round wood equivalent was far less than the total estimated supply of 444 million tons of round wood. However, not all the all the estimated supply is available for consumption of the main forest products as shown in the table above. It is important to consider the following areas of woody biomass such as gazetted areas e.g. forest reserves and National Parks, similarly inaccessible forest and woodlands. According to the points above, the apparent abundance of woody biomass resources are not as rosy as the figures might show. Moreover, only 10% of the above total woody biomass should be considered as available for sawn timber (ESMAP, 1996). The rough projections from the changes in land cover (use) reveal that Uganda will have a negative wood balance of 8.9 million tons by the year 2006.

Uganda faces the following long and short term challenges in forestry sector development, product supply and sustainability:

Enhance the forestry resource base through targeted large-scale and small-scale afforestation and reforestation in the public and private sectors; particularly, in production of saw-logs where deficits are expected in a few years; and in developing a system for biomass energy production on a tree cash crop basis;

Balance the annual out-take and annual increment while maintaining the forest environment; decrease the current rate of forest destruction;

Increase the utilisation of forest products harvested through improved work organization (e.g. organising charcoal producers), improve skill, technology and tools, institutional changes and education of producers and consumers (e.g. using running meters instead of fixed lengths for sawn timber);

Increase the forestry sector revenue to at least 10-15% of total value (monetary), through streamlining procedures and accurate revenue collection and banking; and

Improve the planning, management and control through modem systems for data collection, analysis, dissemination of information and knowledge about the forestry sector.

References

National Biomass Study Reponses.

Government of Uganda (GoU 1997), Statistical Abstract 1997, Statistics Department, Ministry Planning and Economic Development

Government of Uganda (GoU 1995), Background to the Budget 1996 Statistics Department,

Ministry Planning and Economic Development

World Bank 1996, Uganda Energy Assessment Program. Report No. 193/96. Inter Governmental Panel On Climate Change IPCC, 1996, Reference Manual.