In July last year, Fort portal city authorities were put on the spotfor being selective in their campaign to demolish all buildings thatwere built on the banks of river Mpanga in Fort portal tourism city.

This was after authorities who included the mayor Edson Asaba Ruyonga Adyeeri, the Resident City Commissioner by then Angalia Kasigwa among other leaders started demolishing all buildings that were built on the banks of river Mpanga
However, residents came out and poked holes in the manner in which the exercise was done by the authorities indicating that much as some of the structures on the river banks had been demolished, the owners of some of the houses on the same river were favored.

In May last year, the government through the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) drew up a 10-year environment restoration plan aimed at restoring the degraded environment. The plan focuses on restoration of degraded ecological systems such as forests, wetlands, river banks and lake shores.

The government’s plan was also followed by the presidential directive to all the Resident District Commissioners and Resident City Commissioners to have all those in wetlands vacate while land titles given from the wetlands to also be cancelled.

The Uganda Local Government Association president Richard Rwabuhinga, says they are already compiling a list of degraded areas so that they can have them restored.However, environmental conservationists say that as much as the
government is putting in place policies to have the environmentprotected, there are a number of areas where it’s not doing things right.
Godfrey Ruyonga, the director of Toro Botanical gardens, a non governmental organization that deals in biodiversity conservation with the main focus being on ecological restoration, research, conservation and restoration, says policies on leasing central forest reserves.