In Uganda, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has launched an investigation of alleged land tenure and usage rights violations on the part of a United Kingdom-based forest plantation operator.
The alleged violations were first brought to light in a report from Oxfam International, a non-profit group. In its report, Oxfam alleged New Forests Company (NFC) illegally evicted more than 20,000 people in Uganda's Kiboga and Mubende districts to make way for forest plantations. Also, Oxfam alleged that, in some instances, locals had their property taken or destroyed and were subjected to violence.
The report, titled "The New Forests Company and its Uganda plantations," can be read below:
On Oct. 24, FSC announced that it had filed a formal complaint with SGS Qualifor, the forestry services company that handled NFC's FSC certification, which was completed in March 2009. "FSC takes the findings of the Oxfam report very seriously and is committed to ensuring that Principle 2 requiring demonstrated land tenure and use rights … are upheld," according to an FSC press release.
