The Monitor (Kampala)

Francis Mugerwa Hoima

There are 16 National Forest Authority surveyors required to complete a comprehensive survey and redemarcation of all forests under their management in Hoima, Masindi and Kibaale districts all in Bunyoro kingdom of Uganda.

Mr Reuben Arinaitwe, NFA mid-western sector Manager described their task as a resurvey of forests in the districts to assess their extent of degradation, encroachment and clearly getting the acreage the forests cover in these districts and provide data to be used for an NFA library, as a basis to the three year management plan for national forest authority forest reserves.

The exercise will include; boundaries, identification of species composition, economic and ecological potentials of the reserves for strengthening the tourism industry, proper management, supervision and monitoring of the forest and replace data lost during former president Idi Amin s regime. The forest boundaries will be marked by digging trenches on borders, planting mark stones and planting eucalyptus and acacia trees at forest borders.

The surveyors had already completed the resurvey of Bujaawe Forest, which covers the sub-counties of Kitoba, Kigorobya and Buseruka in Bugahya County and the Kyamugongo Forest in Kitoba sub-county, Bugahya county. The Bugoma and Budongo Forests in Hoima and Masindi respectively would be resurveyed next.

He said encroachers on NFA forest reserves were being registered for eviction.

COUNTRIES TO BENEFIT

Eighteen of the world s poorest countries will benefit immediately from the historic agreement to cancel billions of dollars of debt.

The nations have all reached targets for good governance under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative. This was set up by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in 1996.

The countries which will benefit from $40 billion immediately are: Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guyana, Honduras, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

Nine further countries are likely to qualify for $11 billion of debt relief in the next 18 months: Cameroon, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Malawi, Sao Tome and Sierra Leone.

Eleven other countries are part of the initiative and could eventually qualify for a further $4 billion:

Burundi, Central African Republic, Comoros, Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Laos, Liberia, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan and Togo.

MINISTER, EXPERTS DIFFER ON LAND POLICY

The Nation (Nairobi)

Gakuu Mathenge, Nairobi

Mr. Amos Kimunya , the Lands and Housing minister has frozen the sub-division of agricultural land below two-and-a-half acres. The minister said uncontrolled sub-division of agricultural land had become a threat to food production, but the move is seen as likely to generate heated debate especially in high potential areas.

Mr Kimunya told guests attending the 36th Institution of Surveyors of Kenya Annual Dinner at a Nairobi hotel, that this measure was needed until the National Land Use Policy is in place. However, the newly-elected Chairman of the ISK, Mr Reginald Okumu, said that such a move needed wider consultations, was unimplementable and would most certainly be challenged in court as soon as the government attempted to implement it.

Thousands of applications for sub-divisions of land are lodged in government offices every year as people seek to sub-divide their plots either for sale, succession and inheritance, change of user and as people convert agricultural land into settlements especially those surrounding urban areas. All these transactions will now be frozen pending the formulation of the National Land Policy.