Leçons d’activisme citoyen en Ouganda : Sauver la forêt de Mabira

The paper examines the 2006 campaign to save the Mabira Forest in Uganda, where the government proposed giving 7,100 hectares of the reserve to the Mehta Group for sugarcane cultivation. It details how a coalition of civil society, religious institutions, and legal experts used environmental laws and public mobilization to stop the proposal. The author argues that the campaign succeeded by framing the environmental issue as a broader failure of governance and accountability, leveraging the 1995 Constitution's recognition of the right to a healthy environment and the 2005 Access to Information Act.

• In August 2006, the Ugandan Cabinet proposed granting 7,100 hectares of the 30,000-hectare Mabira Forest to the Mehta Group of companies to expand sugarcane plantations, aiming to increase sugar production, tax revenues, and export foreign exchange.
• Civil society research indicated that the economic cost of giving away the forest would be 890 million dollars, far outweighing the projected 20 million dollars in annual revenue for the Mehta Group.
• The campaign succeeded by coordinating a multi-front strategy that included legal action against the investor, public boycotts of Lugazi Sugar Works products, and international pressure via the Forest Governance Learning Group and the IIED.
• Uganda's legal framework, specifically the 1995 Constitution and the National Environment Act, provided the basis for the activism by establishing a clean and healthy environment as a fundamental right.
• The campaign highlighted a trend of increasing environmental litigation in Uganda, aided by legal precedents like the 1997 TEAN v. AG & NEMA case which allowed organizations to sue on behalf of others.
• The author identifies a pattern of 'degazetting' protected lands for private investment in Uganda, citing the 1997 Namanve Forest Reserve and the 2001 Butamira Forest cases as previous examples where the government prioritized commercial interests over conservation.
• Environmental degradation in Uganda is linked to a lack of political will to enforce existing laws and the impact of climate change, which has caused droughts in the East and floods in the North.

APA

Twesigye, B. (2008). Leçons d’activisme citoyen en Ouganda : Sauver la forêt de Mabira. South African Institute of International Affairs. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/Occasional-Paper-7-FR.pdf

Chicago

Twesigye, Bashir. Leçons d’activisme citoyen en Ouganda : Sauver la forêt de Mabira. South African Institute of International Affairs, 2008. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/Occasional-Paper-7-FR.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Twesigye |first1=Bashir |title=Leçons d’activisme citoyen en Ouganda : Sauver la forêt de Mabira |publisher=South African Institute of International Affairs |date=July 2008 |url=https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/Occasional-Paper-7-FR.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{twesigye2008leons, author = {Twesigye, Bashir}, title = {{Leçons d’activisme citoyen en Ouganda : Sauver la forêt de Mabira}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2008}, month = jul, url = {https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/Occasional-Paper-7-FR.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }