Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) is in charge of managing all Uganda’s national parks and wildlife reserves, and its mission is “to conserve and sustainably manage the wildlife and Protected Areas of Uganda in partnership with neighbouring communities and stakeholders for the benefit of the people of Uganda and the global community.” Kibale Forest National Park is one of Uganda’s ten national parks, and, at 795 square kilometres, is the third largest forested national park in Uganda. The park consists of 50% forest, 40% grassland, and 10% wetland. The size is so large that it would take 3 days to walk straight across nonstop from east to west (much longer if going north to south). There are no communities living within the park boundaries, however the soil is very fertile along the boundary of the park and therefore a large human population surrounds the park. Fortunately, the park is happy to report that it is overall stable with minimum encroachment and the animals are growing in number.
In keeping with their mission statement, UWA supports the communities that surround Kibale by helping them find ways to deal with animals raiding their crops, and by setting them up with income-generating initiatives such as poultry farming, bee hives, community tourism, elephant trenches, conservation programmes in primary schools, and women’s groups that promote conservation through dance, drama and music, and making crafts to sell to tourists. This community work is in the interests of both the park and the people involved, as the park is very important in terms of biodiversity and climate, and would struggle if those living around it had no alternative but to plunder it for its resources.
Perhaps the best-known feature of Kibale is its primates; with 13 species, including the rare red colobus and, of course, the chimpanzee, it is a hotspot for researchers and tourists. Its 335 bird species, beautiful crater lakes and, of course, the plants and trees themselves, are also a huge attraction to many people. Climatically, the forest is very important for water catchment, as three rivers run through it, and water quality monitoring has shown that the forest acts as a natural filtration system as the water enters the forest area very dirty, and comes back out clean.
The community work is largely managed by the Community Conservation Department, which acts as a bridge between the park and its surrounding communities. Its key activities are: raising awareness (through drama, brochures and meetings); problem animal control (elephant trenches, thorny plants, burning dried chili peppers to scare away would-be crop thieves); resource access (completing an inventory of the forest’s resources and agreeing a sustainable amount that can be harvested by each community in a given time); beneficiaries (giving twenty percent of the park’s tourist revenue back to communities and monitoring their progress with the projects this supports) and economic development (helping communities to develop in a sustainable way, providing transport where necessary and helping people to monitor their income). Though community projects have been running since the area was given national park status in 1993, revenue share only started in 2000; prior to this, monetary support came from other organisations and wasn’t as reliable as the twenty percent of tourist revenue that now goes towards supporting the projects. The amount given to projects can still vary by year, as it depends on the level of tourist activity in the park, and despite the general trend being towards an increase in visitor numbers, last year saw a decrease due to the credit crunch.
On the whole, it seems that UWA’s community initiatives are having a positive effect. However, there is always more that can be done, as climate change will have more and more effect on the area, and population is still increasing in Uganda. Some community members still succumb to the temptation to come into the park and poach or set snares, and though intensive patrols keep this to a minimum, it is hoped that the future will see education and other community initiatives wiping out the problem altogether.
The Great Primate Handshake team hope to be of benefit to UWA by making information-based videos that UWA hopes to show to surrounding communities at their headquarters and local centers to explain to them how the forest and the tourists that come to the forest can be of benefit to the success and survival of their communities.
Our videos hope to showcase the elephant trenches created by UWA to stop elephants from raiding local’s crops, the beekeeping initiative that has helped the local Ngeza community profits grow, and the local Kibale Association for Rural & Education Development (KAFRED) who has created the Bigodi Women’s Group to empower local women to be able to provide their own income to their families without having to always rely on the men in the family.
See the links to the left to learn more about the above mentioned activities or visit UWA’s official website at http://www.uwa.or.ug/.
