What it means to live side by side wiith Wildlife in Uganda National Parks

Mr Edwin Mugisha a resident who stays in Kashasha village that neighbours Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park in Kabale District, says many people living around the park are not bothered about the hazards that come with being in proximity to the park. “We have access to the forest where we collect firewood and medicinal herbs. We are now entitled to share the revenue collected from the parks annually. Our people are given first priority when it comes to employment. NGOs are paying school fees for our children, ” Mr Mugisha says. Ms Unity Wimaana, also a Ugandan who lives in Ruheija community near Bwindi says she makes money by selling handcrafts to tourists who come to track the mountain gorillas. “There is nobody in my area that can think of encroaching on the national park or injuring any animal because we have all tasted its usefulness. Our prayer is to have the entire road network in this protected area tarmacked,” Ms Wimaana says. Though many acknowledge the amazing opportunities and benefits of the parks to the communities around, some residents and community leaders say wild life has caused serious damage to them although Uganda WildLife (UWA) officials are very sure that it’s a win-win situation.

The councillor for Ikumba Sub county, Kabale District, Silver Baguma, says animal raids destroy crops in gardens which affect people’s food security and household incomes. “Many farmers have always complained that their crops are being destroyed by wild animals from Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park. Raids on crops are a big problem in this area and there is need for a special attention,” Mr Baguma says. UWA Area Conservation Manager Bwindi and Mgahinga National Parks Mr Pontius Ezuma, however, says that a perimeter wall has been built by the wildlife body at the boundaries of Mgahinga Gorilla National Park and communities. He also adds that about 100 people from the communities around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park have been hired and trained to prevent wild animals from raiding crops from neighboring communities. “Crop raiding by wild animals is no longer a big problem in this area because people have been trained to handle wild animals every time they get out of the park,” he says. Revenue sharing Mr. Ezuma says this year, Shs661 million was given to the communities around Bwindi as revenue sharing while those close to Mgahinga Gorilla National Park got Shs137 million. “We started revenue sharing in 1996 as one way of mobilising local communities to conserve and protect the national parks in their neighbourhood,” Mr Ezuma says. He also adds that 90 per cent of the Uganda wildlife park employees are recruited from the neighbouring communities to demonstrate their direct ownership of the national parks and the wild animals. “Over 24 low and upscale lodges have been constructed in the area to offer services to tourists. Locals earn direct foreign exchange besides being employed as casual and skilled labourers. There are few cases of poaching because people have seen the usefulness of the national parks,” he says. However residents of Sanga Sub county in Kiruhura district like those of Ruheija in Kabale, are constantly living under the strain of wild animals. Mr Manuel Asiimwe, a resident of Kijura village in Sanga who neighbours Lake Mburo National Park says wild animals usually destroy his farm. He says he has not benefited much from the park and instead wants it fenced off from the community to stop wild animals from competing for water and pasture with his animals. Zebras and antelopes are a common sight on farms between Biharwe and Lyantonde along the Mbarara- Masaka highway. Some animals have even permanently migrated from Lake Mburo National Park and live on these farms. “Over 30 Zebras live on this farm. We don’t have a solution. They are here competing for pasture and water with cows. They are everywhere,” says Mr Stephen Kamuhanda, a resident of Kyeibuuza in Kikatsi Sub County located over 40 km North-West of the park. Lake Mburo National Park Chief Warden Mr Isaiah Bwire admits that grazers like Zebras compete with domestic animals for pasture but says some people were brought onto the wild animals’ territory. “It has been a challenge to us to stop or get these animals out of community lands because the initial park that was 650 Sq km, was reduced to 370 Sq km by government and it settled people there. It never relocated the wildlife to the new national park parameters. Some of the animals remained in communities,” says Mr Bwire. Antelopes and zebras have since multiplied and extended to new areas. Mr Bwire says they are implementing a program where communities get licenses to keep wild life on their land and whoever goes there to see them pays the owner directly. He says this will make them earn money and also conserve wild life. Like communities around Mgahinga Gorilla National Park and Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, those near Lake Mburo National Park too get money from UWA to support their communal projects as a measure of addressing human-wildlife conflict. “At Lake Mburo National Park, 20 per cent of every entry fee into the national park gate goes to the communities to compensate for some of these damages. In June, we gave neigbouring Sub counties Shs 233 million,” says Mr Bwire. For more info visit: http://www.monitor.co.ug/SpecialReports/Residents++animals+share+farms+and+water+around+Mburo+park/-/688342/1954930/-/12r6nf6/-/index.html

White Rhino Shot Dead in Nairobi Park, Tourism under Threat.

On a sad note, Gunmen have shot dead a white rhino in Nairobi's national park, a terrible raid in one of the best protected sites in Kenya, wildlife officials said on Tuesday.

Amid a rise of rhino and elephant killings across the country, the shooting of the rhino in the heavily guarded Nairobi national park which also happens to be the headquarters of the government's Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) clearly shows how easily poachers are decimating the country's large animals. Poachers, who killed the rhino late Friday, hacked out the horn from its head and escaped, said KWS spokesman Paul Udoto. "It is the first such poaching incident in the park in the last six years," Udoto said, adding it brings the total number of rhino killed this year to 35, already more than the 29 killed in Kenya in the whole of 2012. Nairobi's national park, which is located just seven kilometres (four miles) from the tower blocks of the bustling centre, is described by KWS as "a unique ecosystem by being the only protected area in the world close to a capital city". The park is a major rhino sanctuary, and its previously believed secure environment -- fenced in for much of its 117 kilometres squared (45 miles squared) -- was seen as ideal for breeding and restocking other parks. Poaching has risen tremendously in Africa in recent years and in neighboring countries like Uganda. Besides targeting rhinos, whole herds of elephants have been killed for their ivory. The lucrative Asian black market for rhino horn has driven a boom in poaching across Africa. Asian consumers falsely believe that the horns, the same composition as fingernails, have powerful healing properties. A series of large shipments of ivory have been seized in recent months, including two separate containers in Kenya's port of Mombasa in July this year, one with three tonnes and another of almost 1.5 tonnes of elephant ivory.