Lands ministry to cancel 3000 land titles

By Drone writer

The Ministry of Environment has submitted 3000 land tiles to the lands ministry for scrutiny because most of them are in wetlands and forest reserves

According to the state Minister for Environment, Ms Beatrice Anywar, more than 3,000 illegal land titles have been submitted to the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development for cancellation after they were acquired in sensitive and gazetted ecosystems like wetlands and forest reserves.

According to her recent press release, the Minister said these are an addition to others that were acquired in forests which the Environment Ministry submitted to the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development for cancellation.

“It is not my ministry which issues and cancels land titles. We only submit to the ministry of lands. The process of cancelling land titles is a legal process. We have submitted 3,000 and about two weeks ago, we again submitted some land titles issued in the forests to be cancelled.” Ms Anywar said.

The minister also addressed reporters about the 52nd signing of the Ramsar Convention on the protection of wetlands, a day which nations the opportunity to take stock of their action and commitment to undertake measures to reverse impacts of their negative actions as well as raising awareness on the importance of wetlands for the common future of the world.

Statistics show that wetlands in Uganda registered a decline coverage from 15.6% in 1994 to 13% in 2015. Only 8.9% of the 13% was intact and more than 4.1% degraded.

The minister said following that level of wetland destruction, the government employed several mechanisms to ensure the 4.1% is recovered adding that the country is beginning to see a positive trend with the intact wetland coverage now standing at 9.3%.