Illegal logging is widespread in the country and the country’s army has also been accused of illegal logging in South Sudan. The export of round wood has been banned since 1987, but this ban has been weakly enforced. In 2015, Uganda along with Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and Madagascar made a joint declaration stating their commitment to increase cooperation in order to tackle the illegal timber trade in the region (East African Business Week, 2015).
10% of Uganda’s land area is covered by forests. Uganda has experienced a high and increasing rate of deforestation over the past few decades; the annual rate was 2% between 1990 and 2000, and had risen to 5.5% between 2010 and 2015 (FAO, 2015).