“One well-known case exemplifies the violence created by offset forests. In the early 1990s, the Uganda Wildlife Authority and the Face Foundation, a nonprofit corporation established by Dutch power companies, launched an initiative to plant scores of trees in Mount Elgon National Park. In order to implement the project, the Ugandan government evicted thousands of local farmers. Most have been fighting to regain their land ever since.
Two years ago, after a new government came into power, the courts granted an injunction in the farmers’ favor. Almost immediately, they cut down carbon-sink trees and planted maize and other vegetables instead. In response, the paramilitary Ugandan Wildlife Authority (UWA) began beating and shooting the farmers. Now, the perimeter of Mount Elgon is tantamount to a war zone (Faris 2007; Smith 2007; Zarembo 2007).”

“OVER 50 families have encroached on Mt. Elgon National Park. The chief warden of Mt. Elgon conservation area, Johnson Masereka, said the encroachers moved into the park after court issued a temporary injunction on November 23 restraining the Uganda Wildlife Authority from destroying property and crops of over 400 people.”

“STATE minister for tourism Serapaio Rukundo has called for the arrest of people encroaching on Mountain Elgon Forest National Park. Rukundo asked the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) to work with the Police in documenting evidence and collecting exhibits to facilitate the prosecution of culprits.”