“A bridge between the park and the communities”
Annette, UWA Community Conservation Warden
Wilfred, Acting UWA Conservation Area Manager, Shows Off The Wax Produced By Ngeza 1's Beehives
Although no one actually lives in Kibale Forest, there are many small communities crowded around its boundaries because of the fertility of the soil. There are guards to prevent snaring and charcoal burning and both of these illegal activities are rare. Nevertheless, unless the community understand and appreciate the need for conservation and how it can help them develop, it is inevitable that they will try and use the forest in whatever ways they can to make a living for themselves and their families regardless of the effect on the ecosystem.
UWA’s key community activities are:
- Drama groups and meetings
- Problem animal control
- Resource access
- Revenue share
UWA works with local drama and dance groups to promote sustainable solutions to the conservational issues that a particular community might be facing.
It is inevitable that animals will be tempted by people’s crops, and so UWA have built elephant trenches, planted thorny plants and burn chilli peppers to deter baboons and elephants from spoiling the crops that are an essential source of income and sustenance for the local community.
UWA regularly take stock of what resources they need for sustainability and what will be wasted. They then allow the local community to come in and take the wood they need so as to avoid charcoal burning.
Since 2000, 20% of the entry fees to the park have gone towards community development and this revenue share has funded the various community projects that we witnessed flourishing in the local area.
“[We need to] make them more knowledgeable about conservation programs and give them income sources to keep them away form the park.”
Annette, UWA
Inspecting The Beehives
Due to the lack of land, UWA agreed that the community in Ngeza 1 could have a designated area to keep bees within the park. Though this comes with its own challenges as chimps and honey badgers spoil the hives. Therefore the hives are now divided between the village and the park on a rotation to ensure that some will always be safe. The diverse tree species in the park also mean that the flavour of the honey is very unique and makes it highly sought after. As well as selling the honey, the wax is used to make candles, varnish and shoe polish. The profits from this enterprise then went towards buying goats as a secondary project.
The goats are kept in raised houses to protect them from leopards and other predators. Later on it was decided to create a fish pond, which the community dug themselves, to provide a good protein source for the children growing up in the village. The pineapple garden provides them with a stable regular income and, like the goats, the original seeds were purchased using the proceeds from the hives. In these endeavours UWA is on hand to provide advice and assistance where they can.
At KAFRED it is difficult to market the wetlands and handicrafts as an independent initiative. Therefore it is regarded as an add-on to the attractions of Kibale and, when tourists visit the park, UWA inform them about the activities at KAFRED. UWA also gives technical advice on the management of KAFRED and provides training for guides.
Kyanyawara Dancer
As well as being a music and drama group, the women of Kyanyawara also create handicrafts like those from Bigodi and sell these to visitors. The Uganda Community Tourism Association, a branch of UWA, offers training for these women in basket-making, wood-carving, and creating paper beads out of recycled materials. 10% of the profits then go back into other community projects such as pig-keeping and candle making whilst the rest goes to the artist.
The importance of the involvement of the local community in conservation has always been a key part of the ethos of the Great Primate Handshake. The work we’ve seen here compounds that view and shows just how much can be accomplished with the power of the community behind it.
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