ALERT: Last Chance to Stop Great Ugandan Mabira Rainforest Give-Away
TAKE ACTION: Let the Ugandan Parliament know rainforests and their ecological services including water, climate and biodiversity are more important than sugar which can be grown elsewhere. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni continues to pursue legally dubious plans to destroy large areas of Uganda's last important intact and protected rainforests. Some one-third of Mabira Forest Reserve [search], about 7,000 hectares of an area which has been protected since 1932, will lose its protection for sugar cane production by the Mehta Group. Ecological Internet was the first to bring a thriving Ugandan rainforest protection and protest movement to an international audience. Since that time many more local and international groups have joined the campaign. Uganda has long been facing a deforestation crisis, with forests covering 20 percent of Uganda 40 years ago, but now just covering seven percent. Deforestation has been directly responsible for declining levels of waters in Lake Victoria, River Nile and other rivers resulting in a scarcity of drinking water and reduction in hydroelectric energy production. Continued destruction of Uganda's surviving forests will have further grave ecological consequences -- threatening ecotourism revenues, rare species, sparking soil erosion and water pollution. Already the movement for sustainable rainforest use and development in Uganda has won. Maintaining and expanding rainforest protection has been established as a critical pillar of climate change mitigation, water availability and national ecological sustainability for Uganda's future. Please contact the entire Ugandan parliament, Ugandan ministries and embassies and insist that the Mabira sugar cane project be abandoned, and Uganda's remaining rainforest strictly protected. Take Action!