WHO SHOULD PROTECT OUR FORESTS?

As we are celebrating the international year of forest, there are still problems on the way our forests are being protected. The forest officials have been accused of not following the laws and harassing the villagers near forest reserves making them not only to see the benefit of the existence of the forest but also start hating and making efforts to destroy instead of protecting our forests.

In a field research in Geita district it was revealed that people living close to natural resources do not benefit with the presence of the said resource in their area. Most of them argue that it is better for them to be compensated and move to another place where they can live happy and peaceful. Being close to natural resources such as forest or game reserve one can find it bad lucky due to humiliation, violation of their rights and unreasonable restriction to access these area. The reports from Geita, people are humiliated by the natural resources officers from the District whenever found in area close to the natural resources area. They are beaten and unreasonable restricted to access these area include the limited right even to collect firewood while they know for sure some of the official owning timber machine harvest timber from the forest. People are not happy with the situation as they want to run their life smooth but the official caused an insecurity surroundings to prevail in the area.

Natural resources officer from the District of Geita are accused for taking law on their hands and beating villagers unjustifiably. People found by these officers are force to have sexual intercourse which amount to sex harassment and rape so to say.

In protecting our forest its important the people with mandate to do so should not take the law in their hands or forget to follow the law. Law is there to maintain the status quo, to protect property, vested rights, and established relationships. Law is the skeleton of our society; it controls what we do, when we do it and how we do it. If we choose to break this law then we are punished. An ordered society can not exist without some sort of legal system, even if it is just one simple rule. The forest officials not observing the laws should be punished for the future of our forests.

According to the Environment Management Act not only the officials mandated to protect our natural resources should do so, all of us have the duty to conserve and protect out environment, our natural resources. For the future of our natural resources, forests, our future, we should join hands not to harassment people but to protect and preserve our resources and environment through adhering to the laws. Together we can!
Written by;
Kokushubila Kabanza-YET2011