Uganda, a recent ban on charcoal-making disrupts a lucrative but destructive business

RODNEY MUHUMUZA

THE charcoal makers in the forests of northern Uganda fled into the bush, temporarily abandoning their precious handiwork: multiple heaps of timber yet to be processed.

The workers were desperate to avoid capture by local officials after a new law banned the commercial production of charcoal. They risked arrest and beatings if they were caught.

But what’s really at stake for the charcoal makers is their livelihood.

“We are not going to stop,” said Deo Ssenyimba, a bare-chested charcoal maker who has been active in northern Uganda for 12 years. “We stop and then we do what? Are we going to steal?”

The burning of charcoal, an age-old practice in many African societies, is now restricted business across northern Uganda amid a wave of resentment by locals who have warned of the threat of climate change stemming from the uncontrolled felling of trees by outsiders. In reality, not