Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has ordered to stop the eviction of the over 180,000 forest and wetland encroachers countrywide, until the government has met all stakeholders.

The president was quoted by state-owned daily The New Vision on Thursday directing the Ministry of Environment to implement the order immediately.

"I am directing the Minister of Lands, Water and Environment to immediately stop all the evictions in the forest reserves, the wetlands and the operations of the National Forestry Authority against legal timber sellers until the government has met all stakeholders," said Museveni.

President Museven's directive comes at a time when National Forestry Authority (NFA) officials are warning that the country's habitats for endangered species risk being destroyed by encroachers.

According to NFA, the 180,000 encroachers staying in government forest reserves are destroying the catchment areas for water and habitats for endangered species.

However, eviction has been rocked with controversies. In a letter to the president, the cultural head of Busoga region in eastern Uganda, Wako Muloki, complained of people being evicted from their land they are reoccupied after they left it because of the tsetse flies attack.

According to Muloki, a nearby government forest reserve was expanded to cover the abandoned land.

According to the letter when the people reoccupied their land, the forestry authorities started evicting them.

President Museveni said that this complaint will be useful in assisting the government reach a correct decision regarding evictions.

Muzizi River, that runs across a chain of forests in western Uganda and provides habitats for chimpanzees and gorillas, is one of the heavily encroached areas. Uganda holds half of the global population of gorillas, estimated at 750.

Other areas that have been heavily encroached on are south Busoga forest reserve in eastern Uganda and forests in Masaka in central Uganda.

Previous evictions drives had secured forest reserves such as Mabira, Kibaale, Mountain Elgon and Bwindi Impenetrable Forests, which is home to about 750 gorillas.

Source: Xinhua