By Charity Akullo
Apac
National Forest Authority (NFA), has given out 2,000 hectares of Maruzi Forest Reserve to commercial farmers to restore the lost forest cover.
The reserve in Ayeolyec and Awila Parishes, Akokoro Sub County, Apac district was gazetted in 1939. It covers 61 square kilometers of land with a total of 6,100 hectares.
However, from 2001, locals from Dokolo, Oyam, and Alebtong Districts started encroaching on the forest to open farms, home sites, fell trees for timber, and charcoal, leading to massive loss of trees.
To restore the degraded forest, NFA in 2017 advertised in the national newspapers inviting interested individuals and organisations to apply to replant the lost trees.
Juliet Auma, the Assistant Manager at NFA in Apac District, said that many people applied, though some have not yet followed up on their application.
“When they are given offer letters, they are supposed to come up to the Apac sector office then we move on the ground and do internal boundary demarcation,” Auma said.
Information from the NFA Apac sector office shows that more than 50 large-scale farmers and three companies who applied have planted more than 2 million trees on over 1,000 hectares of the Forest Reserve. Some of the trees planted are; pines, muvule, and eucalyptus.
The requirements for one to plant in the forest is a non-fundable fee of shillings 300,000, a copy of their national identity card for an individual, and company registration certificate for organizations, and a financial statement.
Voices of tree farmers
Sam Ogwang, a businessman in Apac Municipality said he started planting his trees in 2020 during the covid-19 lockdown and has planted 234 acres of eucalyptus and pines.
Ogwang, who has spent shs25m on buying seedlings, planting, and maintenance said he joined the project because it is a climate-smart investment that will benefit many people.
“I have more than 200,000 trees already growing. I am expecting more than shs500m from it in the next 15 years,” he said.
Richard Omara, who has planted 25 acres of pines, said he is passionate about tree-growing, but his problem has been inadequate land.
“When this opportunity came, I didn’t let it go, though I was limited by resources,” Omara said.
Jimmy Olila, a commercial tree farmer from Chegere sub-county in Apac District who started the project in 2021, has planted 70 acres of pines and used shs10m.
“I am planting trees so that when I grow old, the money will help me and my family,” Olila said.
Benefits to NFA
John Giribo, the NFA Sector Manager in charge of the Greater Apac Sector, said that commercial tree planting would boost the biodiversity of the destroyed forest.
“We are losing the wildlife, yet these animals are part of the biodiversity of the area,” Giribo said.
Richard Ekwang, the LC1 of Edep Village in Awila Parish, Apac District, commended the tree-planting project, saying the encroachment had impacted negatively on the community.
However, Denis Tyan, Akokoro Town Council councilor, is concerned that the commercial tree planting might endanger the indigenous trees in the reserve since those who were entrusted to deal in commercial planting might not consider the various species in place.
“As leaders, we were not consulted while NFA was engaging in the commercial tree planting,” he said
