ELIAS BIRYABAREMA UGANDA has granted environmental approval for a $3.5 billion pipeline to export crude oil from western fields to the Indian Ocean coast in Tanzania, despite pressure from lobby groups. The planned pipeline, from fields co-owned by France's Total and China's CNOOC, would cross sensitive ecological systems including wildlife-rich areas, rivers and swampland that are catchments for Lake Victoria. International and local environmental groups including Global Witness say it poses unacceptable risks. But in a statement late on Thursday, Uganda's state-run National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) said it had issued a certificate of approval for the environmental and social…