Legal battle over Uganda's mvule trees

An important new victory from the High Court in Uganda stresses the crucial role that courts can play in ensuring environmental rights. And, just as significant, it highlights how critical it is for dedicated organisations – and members of the public – to become activists for the environment. Carmel Rickard, in her A Matter of Justice column on the Legalbrief site, explains it all has to do with an avenue of very special trees in Jinja City. A Chinese company undertaking development in the city was given the go-ahead to chop them down. And then public-spirited protests began to save the avenue of mature Milicia excelsa giants, known locally as mvule trees. The resulting court case not only saved the trees for now, but led to an order securing their future. The judge, Winifred Nabisinde, said that if – in years to come – there was ever a plan to cut any of them for a ‘valid reason’, there must first be consultations with the relevant official institutions that protect the environment, as well as with ‘concerned human rights NGOs’ working on environmental issues, before they get the chop.