Stop the sugar industry's assault on Uganda's chimpanzee forest!

The habitat of 500 chimpanzees in Uganda's Bugoma Forest Reserve is in danger. Conservationists and local residents are fighting to stop a company that has begun clearing trees in the protected area for a sugar plantation. Please call on the Ugandan government to keep precious land out of the hands of such dubious investors.

Call to action

Uganda was long considered the “Pearl of Africa”. Yet in recent decades, the country has lost one of its greatest treasures: its forests. 25 years ago, half of the country was still covered by forest – now it is only eleven percent. Environmentalists fear that it will be gone within ten years – and with it, the habitat of Uganda's 5,000 remaining chimpanzees.

Not even protected areas are safe from wholesale deforestation – most often for oil palm and sugar plantations. In August 2016, for example, the Bunyoro Kingdom leased an area of 5,779 hectares, much of which lies within the Bugoma Forest Reserve to Hoima Sugar Limited. The highly biodiverse protected area is home to a population of 500 chimpanzees, as well as numerous other primates and elephants.

The National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE) took legal action seeking to have Hoima Sugar's concession revoked, but were not successful. “The local people need all the support they can get to preserve the forest that is central to their lives for future generations,” says Joan Akiiza of NAPE.

NAPE and the local people are continuing their campaign, and they have called on us for international support: Please sign our petition calling on Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni to keep land out of the hands of dubious investors and protect the forests instead.

Back­ground Letter