After more than 15 years in the driving seat of Uganda's Environmental Protection crusade, Dr. Aryamanya Mugisha (left) is stepping down to pursue personal businesses.

He talks about his achievements and failures in an exclusive interview with The Sunrise.

Qn. What would you say have been your major accomplishments?

Before I go to my achievements in NEMA, I would like to retrace my background.

I returned to Uganda in 1989. I started off by working as the chief environmental officer and the acting head of department for environmental protection in the then ministry of water lands and environment.

By that time, we didn't have a policy nor did we have a law in place regarding the environmental protection.

In 1990, I was tasked with the job of leading the process of putting in place that enabling legal and policy environment.

We did this by establishing the National Environment Action Plan (NEAP) which emphasised the pursuit of sustainable economic development, it emphasised the creation of structures for environmental protection including environment officers at the district level.

The process continued until 1995, with the passing in May, of the National Environment Act, the law that established NEMA.

As far as I am concerned, this is the best environmental law in Africa.

It is important to note that the law benefited from very good political support then, because that is when we were removing encroachers from national parks.

We were also fortunate that the law came at a time when the Constitution was being debated, which ensured that environmental protection was enshrined in the 1995 Constitution.

In NEMA, I started as Deputy Executive Director to Prof. John Okedi. My job was to ensure the operationalisation of the law and policy.

In 2001, when I became Executive Director, I embarked on the task of simplifying the law by developing more specific regulations such as regulations on protection of river banks, protection of hill tops, regulations on air and noise pollution as well as on hazardous waste.

We also implemented micro projects including the restoration of degraded wetlands, in places like Ibanda, Nakayiba in Masaka, Kudike in Teso among others.

But to me, putting in place the enabling laws and policies has been the biggest achievement.

Qn. What have been your challenges?

The main challenge has been and remains over-democratisation. In many villages, local leaders have given people permission to settle in protected areas. For example, in Kinawattaka, (a suburb of Kampala) LCs encouraged people to settle in an area that had been reclaimed from degraders.

We have gone to some of these political leaders to seek their support but when they consider the political risk of taking action against constituents and institutions like churches and mosques that make noise, they shy away.

It's not that we don't have a law. When I look back, however, I realise that we made some mistakes.

For example, whereas some people were saying we should have an enforcement wing as the case is with Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) and NFA, we said no. we shall only try to persuade people.
But now you can go to a place and find someone has pouring murram in a wetland.

In some instances you meet armed guards at the site, and when you talk to the District Police Commander, he says he needs orders from above.
The Inspector General of Police himself is difficult to see.When you go to courts of law, it takes a month for a file to be completed and even longer for the case to be heard.

We have cases that have dragged on five to seven years because of bribes. Our biggest problem is political interference.

I have a minister whom I will not disclose, who came to me asking for permission to use a very sensitive place in a protected area.

He begged me but I refused. I know some of them are actually doing it as Kayungirizi (middle men) to earn commission.

Fortunately, in December last year, Cabinet approved the creation of a special environmental protection unit, an independent armed force that would have the powers to prosecute and arrest offenders in liaison with the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP).

The force will have 600 people. The other challenge is corruption in other government departments.

For example the officers in the lands ministry who gave out titles on protected areas to rich people. It's good that some of the titles have been cancelled.

I would say inadequate sensitisation is another challenge but when you look at the major abusers of the environment, they are educated people like Sudhir, and former Ethics Minister Tim Lwanga, who are well aware of the consequences of encroaching on wetland but they simply ignore it.

The other challenge is that of inadequate staff. But we are going to have some restructuring to create more openings especially in sectors like oil and gas.

Qn. What are the major gaps that need to be addressed in environmental protection?

We need to regain political commitment. What caused a decline in political commitment, I would say, was partly the anti-Bujagali campaigns by people like Ken Lukyamuzi.

Environmental crusaders became to be looked at as anti-development and have tainted the reputation of the whole environment movement.

Environmentalists must not be seen to be anti-development. You need to balance environmental protection and development, otherwise the 'no-touch-policy' cannot help us.

We have to change the strategy from being confrontational to start persuading politicians.

By using studies such as the ones that are currently being carried out to evaluate the economic value of some protected forests, I know we shall be able to bring politicians on board.

The other challenge is to step up our presence at the district and other local administrative levels.

Qn. What is your next assignment?

I have decided I should step aside. When you do things for a long time, you make mistakes.

I will be doing private work on my farm as well as doing consultancies for international organisations. But I don't want to work for government.