Uganda's Forest Head Quits After Orders To Allow Clearcutting For Palm Oil Plantation - Reuters

KAMPALA - The president of Uganda asked the National Forest Authority boss to quit after he refused to license a palm oil company to destroy a pristine rainforest on an island in Lake Victoria, according to his resignation note.

NFA Executive Director Olav Bjella resigned and returned to his home in Norway on Thursday after failing to resolve a dispute with President Yoweri Museveni over plans to axe a swathe of forest reserve to clear land for a palm plantation.

"In a meeting with HE the President on Monday 4th of December on that issue I was given the options of signing the license or resign," Bjella said in an email forwarded to Reuters by an NFA spokesman on Saturday. "I regret to inform you I have submitted a letter... offering to resign." A presidential spokesman said he could not comment on the discussion between Museveni and Bjella but said Uganda had to weigh environmental versus economic interests.

"We have to balance industry and creation of jobs with conserving forest. (Emphasis added) Every Ugandan can plant a tree but not every Ugandan can put up a factory," Presidential Press Secretary Tamale Mirundi said.

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