Uganda, April 18 -- Parliament on Thursday rejected the National Forestry and Tree Planting (Amendment) Bill 2024 in which government proposed to merge the National Forestry Authority (NFA) with its mother Ministry of Water and Environment.

The recommendation to maintain the Authority as a semi-autonomous entity was made by the House committee on environment and natural resources through its report to House. The committee was seconded by almost the entire House with legislators arguing that NFA plays a critical role in protecting the environment and mitigating effects of climate change.

The committee reported that "the ministry responsible for environment should stick to its core mandate of policy formulation, establishment of standards...