Saving Mabira Rainforest: Using Public Interest Litigation in Uganda to Save Mabira and Other Rainforests

Abstract

In August 2011, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni announced that he planned to give away part of Mabira rainforest to a sugar corporation to grow a sugarcane plantation and enhance sugar production in the country. The President had made a similar proposal in 2007 and only abandoned it after public and environmental groups received it with immense resistance. The Ugandan government has also given away other forest land to private investors, including parts of Bugala Island in Lake Victoria to a vegetable company to grow palm trees. This Note argues that the Ugandans opposed to the give-away of forest land to private companies can bring public interest litigation under Article 50 of the Uganda Constitution. The Note further proposes that to save private forests, Uganda should seek guidance from U.S. case law on applying the public trust doctrine to trust resources on private property.