Uganda Atlas of Our Changing Environment - GRID-Arendal

An early morning ride through a cool and refreshing Mabira (natural) forest along the Kampala-Jinja Highway (2008)
Forest resources in Uganda comprise of both
natural forests and plantations. Natural forests
include tropical high forests and woodlands while
plantations comprise both pines and hardwoods. Forests
and woodlands cover approximately 4.9 million hectares
which is approximately 20% of the total country area. Of
these, 924,000 ha are tropical high forests, 3,974,102 ha
are woodlands while 35,066 ha are forest plantations.
Forests in Uganda occur as gazetted areas (forest
reserves), other protected areas (national parks) and
as forests on private land. Forests and woodlands are
estimated to have covered about 10,800,000 ha (45%)
of Uganda’s surface area in around 1890. Since then,
the size of the forest estate has drastically shrunk. For
example, at the beginning of the 20th century, Uganda’s
tropical high forests covered 3,090,000 ha or 12% of the
country’s area. Over the years the forests have been
gradually cleared and today estimates indicate reduction
to about 730,000 ha, which is only (3%) of Uganda’s area.
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Forests
Since the colonial era in Uganda, gazettement of
forest resources has been undertaken under three
main categories which still form the back borne of
the current gazettement plans. The aim is to ensure
continuous supply of forest goods and services to the
people of Uganda in perpetuity. The categories therefore
include supply of goods especially hardwood timber;
protection of water catchments and control of erosion;
and increased production of forest goods through
establishment of forest plantations. Presently, most of
the forest cover under protection is located on the upper
slopes of mountains and highlands. Besides biodiversity
conservation, the forests in these highland areas are
for protection of important water catchments and for
erosion control. In other parts of the country, forests
were gazetted primarily for biodiversity conservation and
supply of timber.
NEMA 2009