Acholi leaders petition Museveni over depletion of endangered tree species

GULU– Acholi cultural leaders have petitioned President Museveni over the depletion of the endangered tree species in the region.

The petition was recently handed over to the Presidential Coordinator for Northern region, Bosco Odoch Olak at the State Lodge in Gulu.

The chiefs from the 55 different chiefdoms in the region want Museveni to issue another presidential directive to curtail the escalating destruction of the forests in the region.

The Deputy Paramount Chief of Acholi Otinga Atuka Otto Yai who is also the chief of Lamogi clan noted that the environmental destruction is disastrous to food security due to climate change impact.

Otinga explained the local governments in the region have failed to implement the 2018 presidential directive halting the illegal trade of endangered tree cutting in the region.

The species on the verge of extinction include shea nut trees and Africana Afrizella that the government has already banned their cutting but the local leaders and police have been implicated in the depletion scandal.

His counterpart of the Padibe clan, Rwot Otira Godfrey Obol revealed that the natural forests between Uganda and South Sudan from the Eastern Corridors in Lamwo District have been heavily destroyed.

However, the Regional Presidential Coordinator who received the petition noted that the President will soon receive a copy of the petition for redress.

“The petition is a good gesture of your commitment to conserving the environment and I will deliver it to the President and you must also prepare to seek an audience with him” Olak assured the chiefs.

Meanwhile, Northern Uganda has witnessed an increasing tree cutting and illegal logging just after the communities returned from the Internally displaced people’s camps.

The destruction into the region was far from wide between 2011 and 2018 prompting a presidential directive that banned the cutting of some valuable tree species including shea nut and Africana Afrizella.

A recent survey by the Centre for African Research revealed that two-thirds of the indigenous valuable tree species have recently been destroyed in Acholi Sub-region.

https://thecooperator.news/high-demand-for-timber-escalates-deforestation-in-masaka-district/

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