Civil society in Uganda: the struggle to save the Mabira forest reserve

Abstract

Over the past twenty years Uganda's civil society has been virtually invisible, yet in 2007 government proposals to degazette the Mabira Forest Reserve provoked an unprecedented public reaction. Mabira was transformed from being a symbol of Uganda's natural beauty, into a symbol of civil society efficacy. Mabira is now indicative of other social struggles that suggest Ugandans are increasingly willing to demand accountability from their government. This paper deploys discourse analysis to examine the development, trajectory and deacutenouement of the fight to save the Mabira Forest Reserve, using the concept of civil society as a field of struggle. This alternative conception of civil society is uniquely suited to capturing the heterogeneity of diverse associations in non-Western settings, particularly those that gravitate toward a broadly inclusive issue such as the environment.