Africa-Press – Uganda. Environmental activists have petitioned court seeking to stop a Chinese construction company from cutting down Mvule trees that they insist are endangered species.
The suit against Jinja City authorities and Zhongmei Engineering Group stems from a recent resolution by the Jinja City Council which sanctioned the company’s request to fell eight Milicia excelsa, famously known as Mvule trees, along Nile Avenue in Jinja.
In their case, Environment Shield, a civil society organisation and Thomas Gawaya Tegulle, a lawyer, argue that the move to cut the Mvule trees which take over 50 years to mature is opposed by city residents and environmentalists.
Cutting down the trees without environmental, ecological, touristic, cultural and legal considerations is disastrous, according to the petitioners.
In his affidavit in support of the application, Mr Tegulle says he spent a substantial part and his childhood in Jinja town, now a city, near the Mvule trees.
Mr Tegulle argues that he studied in a school around the Mvule trees and he has a legal, personal, emotional and environmental interest in and attachment to the Mvule trees. Tegulle asks the court to stop the construction company from cutting the trees because they help in beautifying Jinja City and Uganda.
“Jinja is a major tourist destination in Uganda and globally. Trees profoundly contribute to its beauty and touristic attraction. Tourism is one of the pillars of Uganda’s economy. Trees are an essential feature of Jinja City’s tourism, educational, social, and cultural fabric,” Mr Tegulle argues in documents before court.
According to him, environmental degraders in the city are bent on wiping out the only green belt in the form of the endangered Mvule trees on Nile Avenue; between the Victoria Nile (his former school) roundabout and a hotel.
He contends that the planned cutting of the Mvule trees is under the guise of developing a drainage system for the road reconstruction.
“The road drainage and trees can co-exist,” the lawyer who is also a columnist with Daily Monitor contends.
In another affidavit that supports the application, Mr Robert Turyakira, the deputy executive director of the Environment Shield, contends that trees are essential to human health.
Canopies of trees, Turyakira says, act as a physical filter, trapping dust and absorbing pollutants from the air, providing shade from solar radiation, and reducing noise.
To reinforce his argument, Mr Turyakira enumerates the medicinal value of the trees, including having antipyretic, antifungal, antibacterial, analgesic, anti-diuretic, hypoglycemic, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties that can be used for treating several ailments. Among other things, he says Mvule leaves, bark, milky/yellowish latex and ashes are used for preparing herbal medicines for treating certain ailments and diseases such as fever and diarrhoea.
As a result, the petitioners want the High Court to issue an interim injunction stopping the cutting of the Mvule trees.
Milicia excels is a native to tropical African, mostly East and West Africa. It is known as African teak in English, Iroko in Nigeria, Odum in Ghana and Mvule in Uganda
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