{"id":23663,"date":"2021-12-27T18:58:02","date_gmt":"2021-12-27T18:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?p=23663"},"modified":"2021-12-27T17:58:12","modified_gmt":"2021-12-27T17:58:12","slug":"locals-protest-over-barifa-forest-eco-tourism-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/locals-protest-over-barifa-forest-eco-tourism-project","title":{"rendered":"Locals protest over Barifa forest eco-tourism project"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. <\/strong><\/span>Residents and leaders of Arua City have protested a decision by the National Forestry Authority (NFA) to give the Maracha County MP , Mr Denis Oguzu Lee, 10 acres of Barifa Forest land to construct eco- tourism site.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday last week, residents led by the former Arua Municipality MP, Mr Kassiano Wadri, and other leaders demonstrated in Arua City over the project.<\/p>\n

Mr Kassiano Wadri, said: \u201cWe do not hate development but this forest should not be destroyed because of money-hungry people and land grabbers. The laws should be followed. It would be better for Parliament to degazette the forest, then the city authority takes charge of allocating plots of land to people for planned development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Wadri added: \u201cWe shall be here to protect the forest. We do not need double standards to be played by the ministries of Local Government and Environment just because people who have money want to finish this forest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Oguzu, who reportedly secured a temporary licence from NFA to construct the eco-tourism site in the forest, said in a sperate occasion recently that the site would be built on temporary basis.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder our nation\u2019s legal framework, anyone is entitled to benefit from such licensing as long as it is through transparent public procurement process,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, the plans submitted by Mr Oguzu to the city physical planning committee, which Daily Monitor has seen, indicate permanent structures while be constructed on the forest land.<\/p>\n

The plan indicates that the eco-tourism site will have tarmacked roads connecting from hotels, swimming pool, health clubs, manufacturing facility, stores, energy plant, composing plant, among others.<\/p>\n

The city council agrees with Mr Wadri\u2019s demand that the forest be degazetted to pave way for an eco-city, whose plans were approved by the city authorities in 2013 but are pending parliamentary approval.<\/p>\n

The Parliament deferred the degazettment, citing loopholes which the council is currently working on.<\/p>\n

The Arua City mayor, Mr Sam Nyakua, said: \u201cMuch as this forest is managed by NFA, the communities have a say on it because even our plan is to have it gazetted then people are allocated plots to develop it. We do not want to see people grabbing each portion without proper plans. We totally reject this pressure to allow us accept the eco-tourism plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Public Relations Officer for NFA, Ms Juliet K Mubi, in a December 20 statement said NFA followed the right procedure in granting the forest land to Mr Oguzu.<\/p>\n

She stated in her letter: \u201cAs guided by Section 42 of the National Forestry and Tree Planting Act 2003, in 2017, through an open, fair and competitive process, the (NFA) invited applications from potential investors to develop an ecotourism site in Arua CFR.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cDenis Oguzu Lee emerged the successful bidder and was offered a licence to develop part of Arua CFR as a forest park. The offer to Oguzu was, therefore, done in accordance with the law and due processes were followed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Background<\/b><\/p>\n

In 2010 towards the 2011 elections, Gen Caleb Akandwanaho, aka Salim Saleh, President Museveni\u2019s younger brother, camped in the forest in order to \u2018coordinate various projects,\u2019 causing protests from residents and environmentalists, who claimed it was an attempt to grab forest land.<\/p>\n

Gen Saleh left the forest after the complaints.<\/p>\n

[email protected]<\/b><\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Uganda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. Residents and leaders of Arua City have protested a decision by the National Forestry Authority (NFA) to give the Maracha County MP , Mr Denis Oguzu Lee, 10 acres of Barifa Forest land to construct eco- tourism site. On Tuesday last week, residents led by the former Arua Municipality MP, Mr Kassiano […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":23662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,8],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-23663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-homepage-english","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"\nLocals protest over Barifa forest eco-tourism project - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Residents and leaders of Arua City have protested a decision by the National Forestry Authority (NFA) to give the Marach ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/locals-protest-over-barifa-forest-eco-tourism-project\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Locals protest over Barifa forest eco-tourism project\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Residents and leaders of Arua City have protested a decision by the National Forestry Authority (NFA) to give the Marach ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/locals-protest-over-barifa-forest-eco-tourism-project\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Uganda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-12-27T18:58:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/12\/img-61c9fe9e190fd.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/locals-protest-over-barifa-forest-eco-tourism-project#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/locals-protest-over-barifa-forest-eco-tourism-project\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Locals protest over Barifa forest eco-tourism project\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-27T18:58:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/locals-protest-over-barifa-forest-eco-tourism-project\"},\"wordCount\":561,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/locals-protest-over-barifa-forest-eco-tourism-project#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/12\/img-61c9fe9e190fd.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Uganda\",\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\",\"homepage-english\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/locals-protest-over-barifa-forest-eco-tourism-project#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/locals-protest-over-barifa-forest-eco-tourism-project\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/locals-protest-over-barifa-forest-eco-tourism-project\",\"name\":\"Locals protest over Barifa forest eco-tourism project - 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