Several senior and middle level managers at the National Forest Authority (NFA) have resigned or refused to renew their contracts amid the current standoff between the government and the environmentalists over the giveaway of part of the country's biggest forest to a sugar company.

The approval by cabinet early this month to give away 7,100 hectares out of the 32,000 hectares of Mabira forest to Mehta Group for sugarcane growing has sparked protests from environmentalists and civil society.

The Finance Director of the NFA Anatoli Batamani and the spokesman Gaster Kiyingi have resigned in protest against the impending giveaway of Mabira Forest to the Mehta Group, according to Sunday Monitor.

Meanwhile, the NFA Northern Region Coordinator, Dickens Langoya, declined to renew his contract for the same reasons.

Baguma Isoke, the NFA Board Chairman, confirmed the resignations but said some of them were nearing the end of their contracts.

"That is normal. Some of them have resigned but we have also renewed 75 contracts," Isoke was quoted as saying, who would not support the idea of forest giveaway either.

"In my view, climax vegetation should not be subject to de- gazetting but at the moment, the law allows it," he said, explaining that climax vegetation is the one that naturally grows to thick forests and once cut down, it will not return to its natural form.

"All people are opposed to the idea. Why should Mehta be allowed to spoil forests? Our personal opinion is that Mehta should get land elsewhere," said one board member, who declined to be named.

The NFA board was reportedly unhappy that Mehta directly contacted President Yoweri Museveni, who directed the Minister of Water and Environment to give away Mabira.

The Mehta Group approached President Museveni earlier, arguing that part of the forest had been degraded and had inferior trees which could not produce valuable timber.

They promised more local employment, more sugar production in the future, and more revenue contribution to the country's coffers if given part of the forest.

"The truth is that we don't support the giveaway but we have no powers. Local Councils of Kayunga and Mukono districts are opposed to it," the board member said. "If the forest goes, then it's parliament that will give it away, not NFA."

The cabinet's decision, which still needs to be approved by Parliament, follows heated discussions between conservationists and those defending investors' interests.

Late last year senior NFA managers, including two board members and the Executive Director, Olav Bjella, resigned in protest.

Isaac Kapalaga, the NFA Director of Technical Services, resigned after he was reportedly pressured to grant BIDCO a license to take a forest from Kalangala district located in the Lake Victoria.

Source: Xinhua