01/04/2009 (Daily Monitor) - In 2003 the Uganda government, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, Bidco, and individual farmers in Kalangala District under Kalangala Oil Palm Growers Trust (KOPGT) combined efforts and established an oil palm project, Oil Palm of Uganda Ltd (Opul) with technical assistance from Malaysia.

The venture, worth about $170, had as some of its aims: to reduce vegetable oil imports, create jobs, increase farmers’ incomes, encourage private sector investment, engage local farmers directly in industrial production, and to earn foreign exchange.

KOPGT was charged with providing loans to out growers and recover the money when they started harvesting. The out growers were under contract to sell their produce only to Opul and at a price agreed on by a pricing committee yet to be set up.

But all these had to come at a cost. Kalangala District, known for its forests, had to lose some of its forest cover. The oil palm project had to use up 10,000 hectares, and perhaps more, of the district’s natural grass land and forest.

Some cultural sites, recreation grounds, water sources, stone and sand mining areas are also said to be taken up by the big palm oil venture.

So far more than 6,000 hectares on Bugala Island  have been deforested and planted with oil palm trees by Opul and the local farmers are understood to have cleared 2000 hectares for oil palm growing.

Some of the oil palm trees are  already bearing fruit and a crude palm oil refinery is under construction. Before the last quarter of this year shipment of crude palm oil to the company’s bigger factory in Jinja is expected to begin.

Uganda will then start massive manufacturing of cooking fat, soap, body lotions, plastics and a wide range of other vegetable oil products.

However, environment activists and some NGOs in Kalangala District have always looked at the changes with suspicion.

On June 5 2008 religious leaders, Kalangala District NGO Forum (Kadingo), and some other individuals held a demonstration to oppose the changes which they viewed as an environment hazard encapsulated as an economic venture to uplift the people’s livelihoods.

They claim that Opul was encouraging the use of herbicides and other chemicals in oil palm fields, which would be washed into the lake by rain and kill fish and other waterborne organisms.

In particular they complained of Bukuzindu Valley, the island district’s only sand and quarry mining spot, which OPUL had committed to palm growing. It took President Museveni’s intervention in January this year for the valley to be given back to the people to excavate sand and stones for housing construction.

Kadingo went further and solicited funding from SEIMENPUU Foundation Finland which they used to hire the services of Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development (UCSD) to make a survey and assess OPUL compliance with environment regulations and whether or not the oil palm project was likely to benefit the people of Kalangala.

On March 26, 2009, UCSD Programme Officer, David Mwayafu, presented the results of the survey to Kadingo.

According to the survey, most plantation employees of OPUL earn a paltry Shs2,500 daily, lack housing, and have no savings to take home.

The majority of them come from districts, like Pallisa, Mbale, Tororo, and Kabale since the people of Kalangala preferred to carry on with fishing. The report accuses OPUL of planting palm trees beyond the 200 metre lakeshore buffer zone allowed by environment regulations making it possible for rain water to wash agricultural chemicals from the plantations into the lake.

The report also indicated that Kalangala town land at Mwena was planted with palm trees leaving no space for the town to expand.

The report also observed that the deforestation was carried out hurriedly giving no sufficient time for wild life to relocate to other forests.

It further revealed that most public grazing land and water sources had been used up for oil palm growing. Yet some people needed to keep cattle, goats, and sheep. The project was found to be discouraging other economic activities crucial to food security.