Word: forest
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Crunching leaves on the damp, muddy ground as he walks in the forest, Ibrahim Senfuma, a bird guide, says that he and his friends take Citropsis articulata to boost their sex drives. Locals either chew the roots and leaves of the plant (salt is added for flavor), or mix them in a half liter of water and then boil to make tea. Lowering his voice amid the crowing and squawking sounds of the forest, Senfuma confides: "I don't know if it is psychological, but it works. You feel stronger than before...
Nearby, sunlight streams from an opening in a thatch of trees onto Faziira Nakalama, a cook, as she proudly lists the ailments (her own and her neighbors') cured by the leaves and roots of the Pronus africana. "Decreased immunity, stomach pains, malaria... the forest is very important," Nakalama says...
...great deal of the forest may not be around much longer. Over a fourth of the rain forest is in danger of being cleared in order to make way for a sugarcane estate, if a plan by Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni is approved. Last year, Museveni ordered a study into the feasibility of clearing 7,000 hectares (17,000 acres) of the forest after a sugarcane company applied for permission to expand its farm. The study concluded that the sugarcane plan endangers rare trees and birds in the 30,000-hectare forest. At risk are 218 species of butterflies...
...last autumn, there have been a number of protests against the proposed expansion, including a violent rally in March that resulted in a man being stoned to death. Despite the study, the President maintains that development created by the sugar plantation would outweigh losses caused by the clearing of forest land, no matter what potential drug discoveries lay within. Conservation is a luxury of rich nations, says Museveni...
Until the reserve's fate is finally determined, tourism officials are advising residents to limit their use of the rapidly disappearing medicinal trees. "In a few years, these plants will be very scarce in Ugandan forests," Kamatenesi says. And residents depending on the forest for jobs, food and shelter - and who live miles away from a pharmacy - are worried. Asks Nakalama: "If they chop down all the trees, where will we get our medicine...