On Thursday 03 March 2022, a ruling was made by a court in Mpigi to compensate the cultural custodians of a tree along Kampala-Mpigi road in Mabuye village in Mpigi district, 4.6 Ugandan Shillings (approximately $1,300) to pave way for a road construction project. This followed when the custodians refused 150 million Uganda shillings which the Uganda National Road Authority claimed to have offered at first, yet the custodians had demanded 500 Ugandan shillings as compensation. The biggest questions are: What informs these kinds of valuations? Who is right? and What is worth?
Of recent, there is a rapidly deteriorating trend of valuation of natural resources and cultural heritages for development projects with decisions made in a top-bottom approach and a superficially consultative manner that doesn’t respect the integrity and value of these resources to communities resulting in questionable and dehumanizing valuations, putting the long-time stewards of these resources at the sidelines on the decisions made on them.
When the 1995 constitution of Uganda was framed, the framers were cognizant of the peril of decisions taken primarily for development purposes at the detriment of natural resources and cultural heritages and they provided for the protection of these resources and their social-cultural values in the preamble (III) on National Unity and Stability, focusing on promotion, cooperation, understanding, appreciating, tolerating and respecting cultures, customs, and beliefs. It was further expounded in National Environment Management Act 2019 under Part (V) on Management and Conservation of Biological Diversity with specificity on the Protection of cultural and natural heritage.
The United Nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples requires that free, prior, and informed consent of indigenous peoples be obtained in a matter of fundamental importance for their rights, survival, dignity, and well-being, emphasizing the role of the local communities and indigenous peoples in being part and partial of decisions made on the natural resources they have safeguarded and still safeguarding approximately 80% of these (World bank, 2016) for years as the rest are busy exploiting them selfishly.
Broadly, we must enhance development, but it’s very imperative that development remains inclusive and equitable in benefit to the communities they are to impact. As the government has enabled the sprout and development of academic institutions, government institutions, cultural institutions, and private institutions with a specialty in handling these kinds of seemingly wickedproblems which can be amicably, inclusively, and equitably solved, if these organizations collaborate and work in tandem rather than silos and exhibiting of authority on the vulnerable communities which the law and the institutions should be protecting together with their properties, with more specificity on natural resources and cultural heritage.
What is the price of a tree?
Trees valuations have been made and are very critical in any valuation of natural resources. Taking a case study by the American Forestry Association in 1992 on Growing Greener Cities in which the interest rate of a tree is compounded at 5% for 50 years considering the vast intrinsic values a tree offers, a tree of 50 years was valued at $57,151. The valuation of natural capital is never a single time or a dimensional factor measurement and it’s determined by a number of factors from social-cultural and environmental factors to economic factors.
Recommendation
Government and private institutions to always work with professionals in the field of natural resources valuation to ensure that equitable and inclusive valuation of natural resources is undertaken with methodologies and approaches that don’t authoritatively put the indigenous and local communities at the sideline of decisions made by any kind of developer in management of natural resources. A decision arrived at through this process, should reasonably and respectfully enhance the project, either with the natural resource or without it, with consideration of even the viable project modifications or termination in the worst-case scenario.
The Uganda Association of Environmental and Natural Resource Economists was initiated in 2016 to enhance the inclusive, effective, efficient, and sustainable valuation of natural resources. The association is inspired by the course of Natural Resource Economics introduced by the government of Uganda in 2010 at Busitema University to enhance the above-stated objective.