Wetland Forest encroucher warned about the climate change

31 August 2026, 10:13 pm

Ali Lukomo

The encroachment on water catchment areas and forest have greatly caused a climate change in away that that green cover have been destroyed and no rainfall formation would take place in time making hard for the rain to come .

Speaking to Mrs benardet kumwidilwo the vice chairperson for buyende district, growing of crops like rice and others have greatly affected the wetland and water logged areas where evaporation could take place and form rainfall. She called upon her subjects to adopt smart agriculture so that they can leave the wetland and reserve it animals and fish ponds. While addressing the community about encroachment on wetlands she called up the community to support the government on this to protect the environment

Forest encroachment is one of the fastest ways to turn a climate regulator into a climate accelerator. When people clear, farm, settle, or log inside a forest reserve, the climate impacts happen at two scales at once.

Many activities have been curried and many encroachments have been done lin Jinja city and njeru where lake Victoria and Victoria Nile for example business Men have set up bigger hotels and other buildings leaving no room for green cover both sides

1. Carbon storage is reversed
A standing tropical forest stores 100-300 tons of carbon per hectare in trees and soil. When it’s cut and burned, that carbon becomes CO2 and methane. Uganda’s forests like Mabira, Budongo, Bugoma have lost huge areas this way, so instead of absorbing your emissions, they start emitting them.

2. Local climate gets hotter and drier

• Temperature: Forests cool the air by 2-5°C through shade and evapotranspiration. Remove them and ground temperature spikes, heatwaves last longer.
• Rainfall: Trees recycle moisture. 40-60% of rainfall in forest regions comes from the forest itself pumping water back into the air. Encroachment breaks that cycle, so you get less regular rain, more intense downpours when it does rain, longer dry spells.
• Water: Less forest = less infiltration, more runoff, so rivers silt up, floods increase in wet season and water shortage increases in dry season.

3. Global feedback loops get worse

• Loss of canopy lowers carbon uptake for decades, even if you replant.
• Darker cleared land or charcoal-burned ground changes albedo, absorbing more heat.
• Soil exposed to sun releases nitrous oxide and loses organic matter.
• Biodiversity loss removes species that help forest regenerate, making it harder for the forest to recover after drought or fire.

For Jinja district, this is not distant. Encroachment on surrounding forests and wetlands means more urban heat, more dust, more flash floods after storms, and less stable food production because seasons become unpredictable.

Reversing it is the same chain in reverse: stop new encroachment, secure boundaries, restore native trees, promote agroforestry and alternative fuel to charcoal. A forest left intact is worth far more as a climate stabilizer than as cleared land.