It is a bright sunny morning in a freshly opened up patch of land inside Kanaga Central forest reserve, deep in Kibaale district.
The cleared up place is about 500 square meters, with gardens of beans, maize and cassava. In between the gardens, stand huge burnt out tree stumps and felled logs that appear to have been cut over a year ago.
A close walk reveals newly constructed makeshift ant hill-like structures, scattered all over the heart of the central forest reserve.
Most of the makeshift structures are covered with grass and old tarpaulins and provide the living quarters for the forest encroachers.
In front of one makeshift tent lies a young girl, Trifonia Tumuramye, 13. She is lying on a mat and covers herself with a cloth. Dirty sauce pans and jerry cans are scattered around the compound.
Her mother, Mediathese Ntamuhera, 34 sits beside her daughter with a sorrowful look. Ntamuhera is one of hundreds of Rwandese, who found a soft landing in Uganda after fleeing land pressure in Rwanda. And that soft landing is in the forests of Uganda, especially those in the Bunyoro sub region, particularly Kibaale district. The area is home to Uganda’s 16 gazetted forest reserves.