ITOHYA FOREST PROFILE

ITOHYA FOREST PROFILE

Itohya forest is located in Kiziranfumbi Sub County, Munteme parish, and covers the villages of Kajoga, Kinyambeho, Mukabara, Kamunsusu, Kigozi, Butyamba and Kisambya in this parish. The forest is not a central forest reserve and hence owned privately by the locals from the surrounding villages. Ownership is not communal but individual, with each owner having a personal plot, hence free to handle it in any way he or she wishes.

Map of Hoima showing Itohya and Mparangasi Forest Blocks

This is a map showing Itohya forest block

This is a natural riverine forest and is along the Itohya River. The
Forest is majorly intact though degradation due to pit sawing and
agriculture is gradually taking its toll, with cash crops like tobacco
and rice leading among the cause of degradation. This forest is a
habitat for a variety of fauna ranging from the great apes, like
chimpanzees to a variety of bird species, of which some are endemic to
the region.

sepa Itohya forest is at the core of the livelihood of the surrounding communities, and it is depended on from agriculture to the basic need of medicine. Among the crops cultivated in the forest include tobacco, rice, beans maize, groundnuts, peas and other small scale food crops like greens. Agriculture is the leading cause of degradation on this forest with farmers venturing deeper into the forest in search of fresh fertile soils, turning gardens into plantations.

Itohya forest is a water catchment area for the Itohya River and the local communities depend on the water points in the forest as their source of water for both domestic use and drinking. The forest has a number of water points with nine protected springs and eight non-protected wells, serving the communities.

Pole collection and pit sawing are one of the major economic activities synonymous with Itohya forest. This is not only carried out in the private plots but also illegally in the protected parts of the forest belonging to St. Josephs’ Technical College, Munteme, occupying about five square miles. This portion is also one of the last stronghold of the few chimpanzee families left in the Itohya forest block. These apes are viewed as problem animals together with monkeys and baboons, and are partly the reason why local farmers are cutting down their parts of the forest.

Among other activities carried out and uses of the forest are firewood collection and charcoal burning in some areas of significant sizes of the forest especially in Kajoga where there are high instances of charcoal burning.