News And Uganda

UCF Completes Important FAO Project

In conjunction with the Netherlands Forestry Project the F.A.O of the UN supported a project aimed at promoting good governance of forest resources to improve public accountability and strengthen the decentralisation of forestry services.

A part of this important project was the production and launch of guidelines for formulation and management of private and community forest as well as the preparation of simplified versions of the forestry act 2002 produced in English, Lutoro, luganda and luo. Further a website for the NFA was set up alongside an online database. UCF was involved closely in this project and the official launch took place on Monday 7th April.

In a speech prepared but delivered on his behalf by Beatrice Okello, Percy W. Misika the FAO representative in Uganda said; "We at FAO recognise the essential role of the civil society in development and specifically in the promotion of the forestry sector and congratulate and thank the Uganda Conservation Foundation, for their collaboration in the project. The launch event was organised by UCF. Mr Misika also thanked UCF as the organser for "the excellent arrangements".

Rwenshama Boat Station Launched

Handover Group Photograph

Community Members Inspecting the Boat and Safety Equipment

UCF is pleased to announce the successful handover to Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) of the third boat station under its Waterways Project. The latest boat station at Rwenshama, a fishing community on Lake Edward, was officially handed over to the Chief UWA Warden QECA, on March 4th 2008 by a Trustee of UCF, during a visit to Uganda to review project work. Present at the handover were representatives of UWA, Local Council leaders, Beach Management Leaders, and over 50 members of the local community.

In his address Chief warden, Tom Okello, illustrated the usefulness of the boat by stating that whilst it had taken him over 2 hours to travel by road from the UWA base at Mweya the journey by boat along Lake Edward took only 40 minutes. Consequently the UWA rangers will be able to deploy much quicker and to more previously inaccessible places in their fight against poaching, illegal trading in ivory and bushmeat. The boat will also help to curb illegal fishing activities and will be available to be called upon by the fishing communities in times of emergency rescue situations. Both the UWA representatives and the local leaders acknowledged the need to work more closely together to combat illegal activities and help in enabling the communities and the wildlife to exist side by side. In order to operate the boat station UWA will base rangers at Rwenshama which will also aid wildlife management. UCF is currently sourcing funding for the building of ranger accommodation at Rwenshama.

UCF thank the principal donors David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation and the International Elephant Foundation for the funding of the project and National Lake Rescue Institution for their contract work on the boat station and in training the rangers in safety procedures and boat operations.

The principal donors DSWF and IEF have already agreed to support a further boat station on the southern shore of Lake George and funding is now being sought for a second station on the northern shore together with ranger accommodation.

Queen Elizabeth Park Lions, Hyenas Poisoned

The number of lions, leopards and hyenas has gone down drastically since the Basongora herdsmen entered Queen Elizabeth National Park in March 2006.

Over 80% of the hyenas have been killed and all leopards along the Nyamusagani river have been poisoned,” said Dr. Ludwig Siefert, a veterinarian and lecturer at Makerere University.

We have also lost at least 11 lions in the last 15 months.”

Experts reckon that the lion population decreased from 94 in 1999 to 39 today. The damage done in the last 15 months will take 20 years to reverse, they estimate.

Last weekend alone, Siefert’s team, which monitors the wild animals in the park, found three carcasses of hyenas in the area taken over by the Basongora.

An autopsy established that they had been poisoned with furadan, an agro-chemical. The carcasses were bleeding through the nose and the mouth.

The intention of the herdsmen is to eliminate the large predators because they eat their cattle,” Siefert said.“Other animal species also die of poisoning because they feed on the carcasses.”

He said 20 cattle egrets and a marabou stork were among the latest casualties. Tom Okello, the chief warden of the park, confirmed the findings.

He told The New Vision that one carcass of a hyena was discovered on Sunday between Hamukungu and Kasenyi, another at Munyanyage near Katwe, and a third one near Katwe-Kabatoro, all within the vicinity of Mweya lodge.

Okello said there was reason to worry that the lions would become extinct, as happened in Mburo National Park a decade ago.

According to the Wildlife authority, the body parts of the lions and hyenas are used for traditional rituals and voodoo.

“All the body parts, including the claws, teeth and skin, are chopped off and taken away,” said UWA director Moses Mapesa.

“That is one of the reasons why it is difficult to find carcasses.”

Elizabeth is the most visited park in Uganda. But tourists increasingly complain that they don’t see many wild animals.

“One has to count on luck to find animals in the park these days,” said Amos Wekesa, the executive director of Great Lakes Safaris. “Even the Uganda kob can hardly be seen. Yet, most of these tourists save for many years to afford a wildlife safari in Uganda.”

Another concern by conservationists is the spread of diseases as a result of the growing number of cattle in the park. Siefert’s team sighted a limping buffalo, a sign of foot and mouth disease.

“The disease is going to be difficult to eliminate and is likely to keep on spreading in the years to come.”

The Basongora were evicted from Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo in March last year. They were allowed to settle temporarily at the edge of the park until a more permanent solution was found.

However, the Basongora started penetrating deeper into the park. They are now covering an estimated 300 square kilometre area. At the same time, herdsmen from other parts of the country and even from Tanzania took advantage of the situation, making the number of cattle swell from 10,000 to an estimated 40,000.

The pastoralists also started building homes and using firewood, resulting in the felling of trees.

President Yoweri Museveni ordered for an interministerial committee, headed by agriculture minister Hilary Onek, to find a lasting solution to resettle the Basongora.

According to Onek, three of the five clusters of herdsmen have already moved to the designated 20,000ha area in Kasese. But UWA claimed more cattle was being ferried into the park.

“We have intercepted about 10 truckloads of cattle in the last week being ferried in. The Basongora should be resettled as fast as possible if we want to avoid a total disaster,” said Mapesa.

Source: New Vision 26/07/07

Elephant Population On Increase

The elephant population in Queen Elizabeth National Park has hit the level of three decades ago of about 3,000. According to a census report released by the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), the elephant population is about 2,959, up from 2,497 in 2004.

The population doubled between 2000 and 2004 when it increased from 1,100. UWA’s head of research and monitoring Aggrey Rwetsiba attributed the growth to reduced poaching and increased migration of elephant from DR Congo. The park’s management has also stepped up the protection of animals and instituted measures to fightpoachers.

Queen Elizabeth is a transboundary park, with animals moving between the reserve and the nearby Virunga National Park in the DR Congo. It is also connected to Kibale National Park and Kasyoha-Kitomi forest reserve in Uganda.

However, there was fear that the huge number could adversely affect the local population as reports indicate that the beasts have started destroying crops in gardens bordering the park.

Wild animals suffered a population decline due to poaching caused by a breakdown of law and order in the 1970s and 80s. The elephant had gone down to just 400.

(New Vision, 28th January, 2007)

26 elephants killed for ivory

Uganda Revenue Authority has impounded 99 pieces of Ivory worth Shs227 million from smugglers in a Kampala suburb. The tax body manager for public and corporate affairs Paul Kyeyune told journalists that the ivory was got after killing at least 26 elephants. The ivory was impounded after a tip-off. 'It has been established that there are 99 pieces with a weight of 253 kilogrammes'.

It is suspected that the smugglers got the ivory from the Democratic Republic of Congo and that Uganda was being used as a smuggling route, something that has been happening since the 1980's.

(Daily Monitor, 15 December 2006)

Mountain Gorilla and hippo populations under serious threat in Parc National de Virunga

ICCN Rangers have ceased anti-poaching patrols in the area following an attack on their base at Jomba by anti-government forces. International community support urgently requested to support operations to protect the rangers and wildlife of the park.

Laurent Nkunda forces made a significant push from their base near Tongo in
PNV towards the Ugandan Border. His forces took control of the ICCN patrol post and Gorilla tourism site at Jomba and pillaged all the equipment.The post is now back in the hands of FARDC but the ICCN guards have fled to Uganda. All anti-poaching patrols in the area have now ceased and along with the devastated hippo populations the Gorilla populations in the area are now in grave danger.

The ICCN is now no longer able to carry out effective operations to protect the wildlife of the park. They are under extreme pressure and attack from
Nkunda's forces in the Southern sector, and the Mai Mai in the central and eastern sectors.

Without immediate and decisive support from the international community and in particular MONUC military forces;
- The ICCN will cease to be an effective conservation force in PNV.
-The integrity of the Virunga National Park will collapse.
- We will see the end of the Hippo population in the south of Lake Edward
within a matter of days.
- The Mountain and Eastern Lowland Gorilla populations in the area will be
under serious threat.

(Report by Rob Poppe, Technical Advisor ICCN Ranger Training Programme,Parc National De Virunga. 07.12.2006)

Uganda Conservation Foundation has previously provided support by way of equipment for the ICCN Rangers in PNV and will look to provide additional support. To make a donation to this work click here

Congo’s hippos face extinction

Hippos at a national park in eastern Congo’s war-torn area could be wiped out by the end of the year unless action is taken to stop rebel militia slaughtering them for their meat and ivory, conservationists said recently.

Experts say more than 400 hippos have been killed by Mai Mai fighters in the last two weeks in Virunga National Park bordering Lake Edward. The Park once boasted Africa’s greatest concentration of the beasts.

The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) said a recent survey found less than 900 hippos remaining in the remote jungle park, compared with 22,000 recorded there in 1988.

It said so many had been killed that hippo meat was now sold illegally in local markets for as little as $0.20 per kilogramme.

ZSL, which has worked in the park for five years, said the rebels were also killing buffalo and elephants — and had attacked game rangers and their families.

(New Vision 26th, November 2006)

Mabira Forest Reserve threatened

Mabira Forest Reserve is the largest block of moist semi-deciduous forest remaining in the central region of Uganda. It is now under threat as The Sugar Corporation of Uganda (SCOUL) wants to take 25 per cent of Mabira Forest to plant more sugar cane. On August 8, Daily Monitor reported that President Yoweri Museveni had directed the Ministry of Water and Environment to give away a quarter of Mabira Forest to grow sugar cane.

However, the move has met resistance from local environment bodies including the National Forestry Authority and the National Environmental Management Authority, which have written to the president advising him against offering the forest. NFA said degazetting Mabira Forest would have negative environmental and economic impact.

Uganda Forestry Association president Ambrose Kyaroki appealed to Parliament to resist the temptation to change the land use of Mabira, saying it is part of the critical natural heritage and a potential tourist attraction. Kyaroki said Mabira was a vital water catchment for lakes and rivers, including Lake Victoria. "Further depletion of the forest by SCOUL will reduce the water flow of streams and rivers," Kyaroki said. He said with water levels already low in Lake Victoria, such a change could decrease electricity production and that projects such as the River Sezibwa power plant, a proposed power-generating site, would be affected. Kyaroki said Uganda was violating global agreements such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (1992) that require establishment and maintenance of protected conservation areas.

An environmentalist has warned that the rest of Mabira Forest will be degraded if part of it is turned into a sugarcane plantation. The Executive Director of Nature Uganda, Mr Achilles Byaruhanga, said, "Ecologically, you definitely lose biodiversity when the forest is changed into a plantation. Clearing part of the forest will degrade the remaining forest cover. “ Byaruhanga said the forest was of big bio importance to Uganda, and one of the remaining forests in the world with unique bird, plant, butterfly and tree species. "Mabira Forest is one of the richest forest reserves in terms of biological diversity with a lot of tourism potential," he said. "It is one of the world's important bird areas and probably one of the largest because it has semi-endemic species of birds that attract tourists."

(August 2006)

Hippos listed as species threatened with extinction

The hippopotamus is for the first time listed as a species threatened with extinction by the world's biodiversity agency. It is included in the Red List of Threatened Species published by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) which names more than 16,000 at-risk species. The IUCN says loss of biodiversity is increasing despite a global convention committing governments to stem it. "The 2006 Red List shows a clear trend; biodiversity loss is increasing, not slowing down," said IUCN director-general Achim Steiner. "The implications of this trend for the productivity and resilience of ecosystems and the lives and livelihoods of billions of people who depend on them are far-reaching."

Overall, 16,119 species are included in this year's Red List, the most detailed and authoritative regular survey of the health of the plant and animal kingdoms. This represents more than a third of the total number of species surveyed; the list includes one in three amphibians, a quarter of coniferous trees, and one in four mammals.

"Regional conflicts and political instability in some African countries have created hardship for many of the region's inhabitants, and the impact on wildlife has been equally devastating," said IUCN chief scientist Jeffrey McNeely. The common hipppo's decline in DRC has led to a Vulnerable listing even though other African populations including the largest, in Zambia, have held up well.

The much less well known pygmy hippo has suffered from illegal logging and poor protection in several West African nations, leading to an upgrade in its status from Vulnerable to Endangered.