Land, life and justice

This report by Friends of the Earth International and the National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE) investigates land grabbing in Uganda, with a primary focus on oil palm plantations in Kalangala. It documents how the acquisition of land by corporations and governments for commodity crops, carbon offsets, and oil exploration displaces rural communities, violates customary land rights, and causes significant environmental degradation and food insecurity.

• The Kalangala oil palm project on Bugala Island, supported by the World Bank and IFAD, has led to widespread land rights violations. While the government provided 6,500 hectares for the estate, this occurred at the expense of community members without formal titles and the destruction of forests and lakeshore buffer zones.
• Oil palm plantations in Kalangala have caused severe environmental damage, including the clearing of tropical forests, drainage of wetlands, and contamination of water supplies with pesticides and inorganic fertilizers.
• The shift from subsistence farming to industrial oil palm in Kalangala has increased food insecurity. The island, which previously supplied crops like beans, yams, and maize to neighbors, now must import almost all its supplies of bananas, rice, beans, and maize flour from the mainland.
• Land grabbing for carbon offsets under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and REDD+ has resulted in the replacement of native forests with monoculture plantations of non-native species like eucalyptus and pine, often displacing local communities.
• In the Albertine region, specifically Buliisa, the discovery of oil has triggered land grabbing by speculators and oil companies, with reports of up to 700 hectares of land being grabbed.
• The New Forests Company is reported to have evicted approximately 20,000 people from natural forests in the Luwunga Forest Reserve to establish pine monocultures using government officials to seize the land.
• The oil palm project in Kalangala has negatively impacted the local economy and social fabric, leading to a rise in land prices (from 70,000 shillings an acre in 2003 to up to 2 million in 2009), increased crime, and the loss of culturally significant sites of the Buganda Kingdom.
• Employment opportunities provided by the BIDCO plantation in Kalangala are largely limited to low-paid casual labor, often filled by men from Northern and Eastern Uganda, paying approximately one dollar a day.

APA

Friends of the Earth International (2012). Land, life and justice. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/land-life-and-justice.pdf

Chicago

Friends of the Earth International. Land, life and justice. 2012. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/land-life-and-justice.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Friends of the Earth International |title=Land, life and justice |date=April 2012 |url=https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/land-life-and-justice.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{friendsoftheearthinternational2012land, author = {{Friends of the Earth International}}, title = {{Land, life and justice}}, institution = {Friends of the Earth International}, year = {2012}, month = apr, url = {https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/land-life-and-justice.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }