An investigation by this publication found that commercial charcoal production continues in...
At first glance, the sight of charcoal being handed out freely to ordinary households may look like an unusual reward for people who have watched their forests disappear.
But behind the generosity lies an uncomfortable question: can giving away charcoal seized from illegal dealers help end the very trade that produced it?
In northern Uganda, where charcoal has become both a source of household energy and a lucrative commercial enterprise, the answer is far from simple.
The Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) has been distributing impounded charcoal to communities, including vulnerable households.
On August 13, local communities of Anaka Town Council and Agung Village in Purongo Sub-county in Nwoya District queued with smiles behind a truck loaded with bags of charcoal that was impounded during an operation by the UPDF soldiers.
Among those lined up to receive the ‘gift’ of the seized charcoal were women with children tucked on their backs, young and old women and men alike. The bags in the truck were visibly dirtied by the red soil, indicating that the truck had travelled from far away.
At the distribution site, there were policemen who took records of the event. Shortly, muscular men climbed the truck to offload the bags of charcoal. There was a growing sense of happiness among the members who lined up to receive the bags of charcoal.
Ms Jesca Ayo of Nwoya Town Council, said: “Much as it is good for community members to benefit, that exercise of distribution of charcoal seized from dealers does not address the reasons for commercial charcoal burning.”
She added: “And the charcoal business is not simply a story of a poor villager cutting a tree to feed a family; it is a whole chain of business being done by rich people, who are highly protected in this government.”
Who accounts for trees lost?
This is perhaps the most uncomfortable question in the charcoal debate. When authorities confiscate a truck carrying hundreds of bags of charcoal, there is usually a visible object to count.
For Mr Joseph Candiga, “The bags can be counted. The truck can be impounded. The driver can be arrested. But who counts the trees, who records the hectares of woodland lost to produce the charcoal?”
“Who calculates the value of lost biodiversity, degraded soils, destroyed habitats and reduced ecosystem services? And who pays for restoring those landscapes? We have always seen these efforts, but the same dealers return to the jungles to do the same things,”he added.
From the angle of the UPDF
The 4th Infantry Division Commander, Maj Gen Wilberforce Sserunkuma, ordered that the charcoal be distributed to members of the local community for household energy use.
Gen Sserunkuma said the security forces would strengthen efforts to protect northern region’s dwindling forest cover, stressing that environmental conservation requires the active participation of local communities.
He said the army remains committed to building on the environmental protection gains and enforcing presidential directives aimed at curbing environmental degradation.
The military has said the measure is intended to ensure confiscated charcoal benefits communities rather than returning to traders. Some of the charcoal dealers claimed they transported the charcoal from South Sudan, which apparently has also banned commercial charcoal burning.
According to the local authorities, the exercise is part of the enforcement of the presidential directive against commercial charcoal burning.
About 1,000 bags of charcoal were impounded from charcoal dealers and distributed to the jubilant local communities. On August 24, for example, the UPDF and police impounded 500 bags of charcoal on the Kora Abiri-Layibi route in Gulu and distributed them to the local communities.
But in gazetted forests of Zoka Central Forest Reserve in Adjumani and Mt Kei Central Forest Reserve in Yumbe, the bigger question is what happens to the forests from which much of the charcoal originates.
Charcoal for today, but what about tomorrow?
For a household that cannot afford to buy charcoal, a free bag can mean money saved for food, school fees, or medicine. But environmentalists say the security’s distribution of seized charcoal is a short-term response to a commodity that has already entered the enforcement system.
Mr William Amanzuru, the Team Leader of Friends of Zoka, who has been at the frontline, suggests: “Free charcoal should not be a charity. This may aid more destruction. Let there be a policy that drives auctioning where the money accrued from it is invested back into reforestation.”
Mr Amanzuru said the law enforcers should ensure the suspects are prosecuted, the trucks are confiscated and sold by the government, and such proceeds should be used to restore the environment.
In this way, Mr Amanzuru believes environmental restoration would be done because people have remained unaccountable for the already cut trees.
Investigation
A June 2024 investigation by this publication found that commercial charcoal production continues in northern Uganda despite the presidential ban.
At Zoka, motorcycle riders were reportedly transporting charcoal from production areas to collection points, with a commercial dealer paying them for each trip.
This illustrates the structure of the business: the person holding the axe is often only one link in a much longer chain. The greatest profits are not necessarily made at the charcoal kiln.
Mt Kei is bleeding too
Further West of Yumbe District, Mt Kei Central Forest Reserve tells a similar story. The former Rhino sanctuary, stretching along the Uganda-South Sudan border, has faced illegal logging and charcoal burning that locals say is at its peak.
Mr Cox Banduga, an environmental advocate with Save the Shea Nut Foundation in Yumbe District, said: “Most of the impounded charcoal originates from Ariwa, Midigo, Kerwa, Romogi, Kululu and Kei Sub-counties. This is where there is a huge racket of dealers. This action of impounding and distributing can discourage some of the dealers.”
He added that the charcoal dealers often use the locals to cut trees and burn charcoal, which they later sell to them cheaply.
“This is a short time remedy because charcoal burning is extensive. The dealers have a lot of spy networks and there is an influx of motorcycles carrying three or four sacks and one person can carry like six times. And so, the whole day, these boda-boda cyclists could carry over 100 bags. We are all looking at the remaining trees which should be saved,” he said.
Government view
Mr Bob Kazungu, the Assistant Commissioner for Forestry, Assessment, and Monitoring in the Ministry of Water and Environment, said a total of eight central forest reserves were considered under the management planning process, with Zoka being one of them for boundary opening.
He added that the other seven reserves are located in Moyo and Adjumani, including some that straddle the boundaries of the two districts.
According to him, a 2022 assessment of the forest destruction rate put it at 10 percent.
“We have a management plan that involves relevant forestry departments, particularly those responsible for forest operations, law enforcement and protection. Zoka is important because it contains one of the few remaining tropical high forests in northern [Uganda] and West Nile,” he said.
Enforcement and reality
Confiscating charcoal demonstrates that enforcement agencies are acting. But the environmentalists believe there is still a danger when success is measured mainly by the number of bags or trucks seized.
They note that a truck can be replaced, a trader can buy another vehicle, a charcoal burner can establish another kiln, but a mature tree cannot be replaced overnight. They raise pertinent questions to the enforcers.
Mr Amanzuru and Mr Banduga say key questions should be asked around how many illegal kilns were permanently closed? How many commercial networks were dismantled? How many hectares have been restored? How many trees have survived? How many influential financiers and middlemen have been prosecuted? How much money has been recovered from the illegal trade?
Without clear answers to these questions, they say enforcement risks becoming a repeated process.
The suspects
In the August 13 operation, four owners of the impounded charcoal were handed over to police in Nwoya District for prosecution.
And for the August 24 operation, the police arrested a truck driver from Wabinyonyi Village, Butuntumula Sub-county in Luwero District, and his turn boy from Namayonjo Village in Wabinyonyi Sub-county, Nakasongola District.
The two suspects were detained by police as investigations continued into the illegal transportation of the charcoal.
