By Robert Tumwesigye
A guest blog by Robert Tumwesigye from Pro-Biodiversity Conservationists in Uganda (PROBICOU).
One of the last refuges of the Mountain Gorilla, Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, is under threat from plans to clear fell ancient rain forest on the park’s perimeter to make way for tea plantations. Tea growers, backed by members of the district local government, are planning to clear all 250 hectares of the Kafuga Pocket Forest Reserve on the southern fringes of the national park, one of the world’s greatest ecological treasures.
Please help us stop this before it’s too late and sign our petition calling on the Minister of Water and Environment in Uganda, the Hon. Professor Ephraim Kamuntu to protect the Kafuga Forest.
The Kafuga Forest is part of a vital buffer zone for the Bwindi National Park, listed by the United Nations as a World Heritage Site. The park supports 400 critically-endangered mountain gorillas; nearly half of the remaining total world population of 880. It is also home to hundreds of other species, including the African elephant, baboon, chimpanzee, l’Hoest’s monkey, African giant swallowtail and no less than 347 other types of birds.
If the Kafuga Forest is cut down it will also destroy a vital natural resource for local communities, who rely on the forest for food, medicine and clean water.
We urgently need your support to persuade the Ugandan government to intervene. With support from UK charity, International Tree Foundation (ITF), we have been working with local communities to raise 30,000 tree seedlings for planting out to restore and conserve the Kafuga Forest.
Now these plans have had to be suspended…and if action is not taken soon the forest could be cleared in the next few months!
Help us put a stop to this environmental vandalism by persuading the authorities that we must conserve this valuable remnant of ancient forest for its own sake, for the benefit of the people living around it and to help secure the long-term future of the mountain gorilla and its natural habitat. #SaveKafugaForest
Click here for more information.
Synchronicity Earth is trying to grow support for PROBICOU’s efforts to restore the Kafuga Pocket Forest through its Regeneration portfolio. If you would like more information please contact us at info@synchronicityearth.org.
