Where did Bamasaba go wrong about their habitat and heritage?

Conservation is internationally described as the protection of flora and fauna. This is an area placed under public control for the protection and preservation of wild vegetation and animal life for the benefit, advantage and enjoyment of the general public whose boundaries cannot be altered either by presidential or royal decree except by competent legislative authority such as the Parliament of Uganda.

Therefore, issues of hunting of fauna and collection of flora is prohibited, except again with permission of the conservation authorities such as the Uganda Wildlife Authority.

It must be recalled that conservation of game, for example, started with rulers (kings), who used to go hunting in the wild. However, as people learnt how to develop and use sophisticated weapons (firepower), they threatened the kings’ interests by reducing the number of game. Therefore, in order to protect their interests, the rulers put regulations on the hunting activities, which protected game.

The Roan Antelope in South Africa, for example, exclusively belonged to the kings and in the same way ivory in Tooro belonged to the Omukama (Tooro King) and no other person was allowed to own the trophy.

Conservation or park creation in the US was first initiated in 1872 with Yellowstone conservation area ie national park and since then, the idea of conservation spread to other areas. In Africa, the first practical move of a conservation area was the Sabi Game Reserve established in the Transvaal in 1898, which later became known as Kruger National Park from 1926.

Before Kruger was named a park, Virunga National Park (then Albert National Park) was declared in 1925 in the then Belgian Congo, later called Congo Kinshasa, Zaire and now DR Congo to protect mainly mountain gorillas.

Uganda joined in the fray and at the moment, there are 10 national parks Viz: Murchison falls, Queen Elizabeth, Kidepo valley and Lake Mburo national parks which are dominantly grasslands, mount Rwenzori and Mgahinga gorilla national parks which are dominated by tropical montane forests, Bwindi impenetrable forest national park which is dominantly low land tropical rain forest, Kibaale forest, Semuliki and Mt. Elgon national parks.

If the ancient leaders would conserve, how come that the dotcom ones are destroying their enviroment like what is happening on Mt Elgon parks? Our forefathers did wonders by practising sustainable land management such as pooling of labour, contours, fertility enhancement with home-made manure, etc.

Nabendeh Wamoto,
[email protected]