Uganda shelves plan to give rainforest to cane farm - Reuters

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Uganda shelves plan to give rainforest to cane farm
22 May 2007 10:41:00 GMT
Source: Reuters

By Tim Cocks

KAMPALA, May 22 (Reuters) - Uganda's cabinet has suspended a
proposal to give away part of a rainforest to a sugarcane grower,
the environment minister said on Tuesday, weeks after three people
were killed in a protest against the plan.

President Yoweri Museveni has faced vocal opposition over the plan
to raze 7,100 hectares (17,540 acres) of Mabira Forest, a nature
reserve since 1932, and give the land to the privately-owned Mehta
Group's sugar estate.

Environment minister Maria Mutagamba told Reuters the government
had shelved it, pending a cabinet committee study.

-snip-

Mutagamba said the lands ministry would draw up a map of land
available to investors in Uganda for sectors such as coffee, sugar,
manufacturing or tourism, to see if there was alternative land for
Mehta's sugar.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L22306209.htm

[dipsydoodle]

1. Nice to see

that common sense prevails occasionally.