The Legal Framework for Sand Mining
in Uganda
Tajudeen Sanni
1 Introduction
A screaming headline in the London Guardian newspaper reads: “Sand mining: the
global environmental crisis you’ve probably never heard of”.
1 The headline captures
the problems associated with mining of sand in many countries around the world.
This is by no means inexplicable: the global urbanization boom is consuming
large amounts of sand as the major component of concrete and asphalt used in
construction works. Mining of tracts of land and water bodies for sand to meet
increasing demand for sand in the construction industry has thus been on the increase
globally. It has been so rampart that the issue was presented, in 2012, as a serious
international threat to biodiversity at the Conference of Parties of Convention on
Biodiversity in Hyderabad.
2
Concerns have been raised not only about the impact of sand mining on the
environment or biodiversity but on agricultural productivity in general.
3 From
Uganda to India to United States, the problem associated with this variant of mining
T. Sanni (*)
Kampala International University, School of Law, Kampala, Uganda
Nelson Mandela University, Department of Public Law, Port Elizabeth, South Africa
1 The Guardian (February 27th, 2017).
2 In 2013 the Awaaz Foundation and the Bombay Natural History Society presented the issue of
sand mining to the Secretariat of Convention on Biodiversity as a major international threat to
coastal biodiversity.
3 Agriculture contributes about 26% to Uganda’s GDP. It is the largest source of export earnings,
about 53% of export earnings from 2007 to 2012/13. Over 75% of the labour force are employed in
the sector. See Trading Economics (2019).
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
H. Yahyah et al. (eds.), Legal Instruments for Sustainable Soil Management in
Africa, International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36004-7_6
101
in Uganda
Tajudeen Sanni
1 Introduction
A screaming headline in the London Guardian newspaper reads: “Sand mining: the
global environmental crisis you’ve probably never heard of”.
1 The headline captures
the problems associated with mining of sand in many countries around the world.
This is by no means inexplicable: the global urbanization boom is consuming
large amounts of sand as the major component of concrete and asphalt used in
construction works. Mining of tracts of land and water bodies for sand to meet
increasing demand for sand in the construction industry has thus been on the increase
globally. It has been so rampart that the issue was presented, in 2012, as a serious
international threat to biodiversity at the Conference of Parties of Convention on
Biodiversity in Hyderabad.
2
Concerns have been raised not only about the impact of sand mining on the
environment or biodiversity but on agricultural productivity in general.
3 From
Uganda to India to United States, the problem associated with this variant of mining
T. Sanni (*)
Kampala International University, School of Law, Kampala, Uganda
Nelson Mandela University, Department of Public Law, Port Elizabeth, South Africa
1 The Guardian (February 27th, 2017).
2 In 2013 the Awaaz Foundation and the Bombay Natural History Society presented the issue of
sand mining to the Secretariat of Convention on Biodiversity as a major international threat to
coastal biodiversity.
3 Agriculture contributes about 26% to Uganda’s GDP. It is the largest source of export earnings,
about 53% of export earnings from 2007 to 2012/13. Over 75% of the labour force are employed in
the sector. See Trading Economics (2019).
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
H. Yahyah et al. (eds.), Legal Instruments for Sustainable Soil Management in
Africa, International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36004-7_6
101