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FORESTRY AND CONSERVATION
ACTIVITIES IN HOSTING REFUGEE
AREAS (KENYA – UGANDA)
By Luc Cambrézy
Places and territories are perceived differently at times of peace or during conflict and extreme violence. When security becomes a major issue it is evident that some places are more exposed to risk than others. For everyone involved -protagonists or civilians, oppressors or victims- places like mountains or forests can become refuge areas in times of war. They are especially sought after for protection. This article examines the place and the ambiguous role of forest areas in two distinct refugee hosting situations, in Kenya and Uganda.
1 The example of Kenya
Somalian refugees have been gathering in
Dadaab in eastern Kenya since 1991 and
1992. Extensive camps have been set up in
this semi-arid region of quite dense bush
and bushy savannah. For several years, the
refugees were left to their own devices for
their supply of wood, fuel, and construction
(poles, herbs, etc.). It should be pointed out
that this practice -akin to gathering- has had
little overall effect on the maintenance of
plant cover as long as stocks of dead wood
were plentiful. Unfortunately, the proximity
of this bush, so vital for the refugees, creates
problems. These tracts of vegetation also
serve as refuges for armed groups, more or less a product of the Somalian civil war,
who gravitate around these camps. These
gangs, attracted by the diverse
opportunities for thieving and pillaging, are
responsible for the proliferation of attacks
and frequent rape of women from the
camps. The ever-greater distances these
women have to go to collect wood have
made bush areas increasingly dangerous
and inaccessible for them.
The United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR), seeking to remedy this situation and fulfil its duty to protect refugees, set up a wood collection and distribution programme in 1998. The objective is to minimise the time women and girls have to spend in the bush around their camp. The programme funds local traders and transporters for regular delivery of fuelwood at the refugee camps. This is laudable from a humanitarian point of view. Yet it is highly precarious, both in financial (funding is at risk of suspension at any moment) and environmental terms. In this region, with its pastoral economy, there is a dual risk. On the one hand it is to be feared that insidious privatisation of wood resources will lead to ever increasing prices making the wood too expensive for the poorest and more vulnerable. On the other hand -and this has already been observedthe simple gathering of dead wood is hardly compatible with traders’ and transporters’ quest for ever higher and more immediate profit. In fact, it is more profitable to clearcut a small patch of living forest than to collect dead wood over an extended area.
This situation prompts fears over the wood distribution programme; however justified it may be in terms of refugee protection. The programme proves to be dangerous in terms of plant cover protection and renewal. In this region of extensive livestock rearing, the vegetation is the sole important resource. Together with the necessary freedom of access to water points, it is essential that this plant cover remains a protected and shared resource.
2 The example of Uganda
In the North-West of Uganda, refugees from
neighbouring Sudan are gathered in the
districts of Arua, Moyo and Adjumani, an area
of woody savannah and open forest. Unlike
in Kenya, they are hosted in rural settlements
rather than in camps. The refugees are given
land use rights, which encourage them to
cultivate the terrain. This policy aims to
reduce dependence on food distribution and,
to that end, to reduce dependency on the
World Food Programme.
These sites are usually located in the periphery of local populations, where clearing of woodlots is considered as an essential first step towards cultivation. Here, deforestation occurs as a consequence of a political and economic decision. Humanitarian aid is used as a driving force for local development. Opening up forest sites for refugees and development of basic infrastructure (roads, schools, clinics, wells) are effectively instruments of agricultural colonisation.
In this example, the forest is perceived primarily as a space to be conquered not so much for timber resources as for the potential expansion of agriculture it represents. The importance of this objective to conquer, develop and control a territory is augmented by the fact that the forests are invariably used as the base for murderous attacks that are launched by the Lord Revolutionary Army guerrilla forces. Mountainous areas are always difficult to deal with. But a forest judged to be a threat to security is relatively easy to destroy. This is why, from the point of view of the authorities in the region, pushing back the forest represents –at least temporarily– progress towards peace and development.
Conclusion
In times of conflict, forest areas have the
particular characteristic of representing a
space whose measured value depends on
at least two different perceptions: 1) the
forest as a place that produces a prized
resource, wood; 2) the forest as a particular
space whose structure and organisation
(mainly tree density) provides better cover
than others for hiding places. However, a
forest which provides a good hiding place
for some represents a threat to others.
In the two examples given above, the insecurity of the wooded areas does not lead to the same effects. In the Kenyan case, insecurity of the bush hinders access to wood resources or makes it problematic. In the Ugandan example, the danger of the forest encourages its programmed destruction. Herein lies the lesson to remember: insecurity does not provide protection against forest destruction, it can accelerate or postpone forest destruction in specific ways.
Luc Cambrézy
Geographer , Director of Research
Institut de Recherche pour le
Développement (IRD)
32 Avenue Henri Varagnat
93143 Bondy CEDEX
France
E-mail: Luc.Cambrezy@bondy.ird.fr