This video shows the grey crowned crane, the national bird of Uganda.
Reuters reports:
Uganda Shelves Plan to Give Rainforest to Cane FarmUGANDA: May 23, 2007
KAMPALA - Uganda’s cabinet has suspended a proposal to give away part of a rainforest to a sugarcane grower, the environment minister said on Tuesday, weeks after three people were killed in a protest against the plan.
President Yoweri Museveni has faced vocal opposition over the plan to raze 7,100 hectares (17,540 acres) of Mabira Forest, a nature reserve since 1932, and give the land to the privately-owned Mehta Group’s sugar estate.
Environment minister Maria Mutagamba told Reuters the government had shelved it, pending a cabinet committee study.
“There is a suspension until the committee reports back,” Mutagamba said. “It is an extensive process — it is not going to be finished in a week or a month.” …
Critics say razing part of Mabira would destroy a fragile environment — drying up rainfall, threatening a watershed for streams that feed Lake Victoria and removing a buffer against pollution of it from Uganda’s two biggest industrial towns.
It also threatened species like rare monkeys and the prized Tit Hylia bird — found only in Mabira and surrounding forests.
