He abandoned a UN job to save the environment

Kaddu Sebunya found himself dealing with issues of a scientific nature accidentally. He had just obtained a degree in Sociology and Political Science from Makerere University. When he left university, he got an opportunity to travel to France in 1989.

He had his eyes set on the United Nations (UN). At the time, it was a requirement for one to know at least two international languages, so he enrolled at a university to learn French.

When he got to France, Margaret Thatcher was the prime minister of the United Kingdom and she was being pressured by the rest of Europe to sign crucial pacts on pollution and the environment.

“It was the first time I heard about environment. It was in the news all the time and I asked myself what environment was. I started reading a lot about it and it made sense to me.
I enrolled for a Master’s degree in one of the first environment schools in Europe, Wye College (now Imperial College), in South England. We were only two Africans in a class of about 17 students,” he recollects. From that day on, his work has always involved environment and conservation.

Who is Sebunya?
Sebunya is the Country Director of Africa Wildlife Foundation (AWF), one of the largest conservation NGOs on the continent, focused on Africa. In Uganda, the NGO pioneered the idea that protected areas must have community participation.

AWF raised the bar from communities benefitting from tourists by doing simple chores from washing their clothes or selling crafts to settng up lodges where tourists reside while in the country. One example he cites is Clouds Mountain Gorilla Lodge in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, in southwestern Uganda.

The facility is co-owned by the community and Wildplaces Africa. “Clouds Mountain Gorilla Lodge is a conservation project in itself. It is, in fact, owned by the community of Nkuringo, but designed, built and managed by us.

The Nkuringo Gorilla group was habituated specifically for this project to garner the participation of the community in the conservation of the gorilla habitat,” Tamara Segal, group business development and marketing manager at Wildplaces Africa and The Uganda Safari Company, explains.

Resolving conflicts
In the past, gorillas raided crops of the homesteads lying at the periphery of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Through a programme spearheaded by the International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP) and the AWF, a tract of land was purchased from the community as a buffer zone and a private sector partner was sought to build and manage a lodge.

The community earns a significant share of the revenue and there are many spin-off benefits from these earnings. At the end of the year, the two parties evaluate how much they have gained.

Sebunya says by way of taking care of the gorillas, there is business which benefits the community and the investors.

“You just make sure you do not cut the trees they feed on or pollute the water they drink, so to say, preserve nature,” he adds.

Challenges
Sebunya reveals that one of the challenges to conservation in Uganda is population, which continues to rise and put pressure on land and spaces such as wetlands and bushes that are home to wildlife, fauna and flora.

“Another issue is international trade or globalisation, which opens up demand beyond our borders. If Kakira Sugar Works, for example, sells sugar to Uganda only, they would not need more land. But because they need to export, they therefore, need more land. International trade opens up poaching to a different market,” the conservationist argues.

He also points out the failure by conservationists to break down the idea of conservation and its relation to livelihoods. He opines that just like the AWF objectives state, it is important for conservationists to work with Africans to ensure that wildlife on the continent endures forever.

Sebunya’s work has led him to the north-eastern part of the country, in Karamoja to secure the corridor for elephants. There are also efforts to manage wildlife among communities around Lake Mburo National GamePark.

The loud message is for locals to appreciate the role of wildlife in their livelihood, as well as business opportunities wildlife brings to each land owner.

“At a larger level, we are working with Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) to develop guidelines in areas of ecological monitoring, as well as private and communal land owners involvement in wildlife management because there is a lot of it (wildlife) on private land, which is currently managed by UWA. We are working to develop guidelines so that landowners can benefit from having chimps or snakes on their land without doing anything to them,” Sebunya further explains.

That aside, getting locals to buy into conservation ideas is another challenge. Sebunya recalls when he started doing conservation work, he had to convince people living on the shores of Lake George that the water they were using was unsafe for human consumption and they needed a borehole that had to be sunk.

One of the locals, an elderly man, approached him and told him that he had been using the same water (from the lake) for 60 years. The conservationist had to do more explanation, much of which fell on deaf ears.

Like that, Sebunya coined his own definition of conservation- as responsible development that provides for thriving wildlife.

Involving more people
Wildlife management in Uganda was once the responsibility of the government alone. However, as concern grew about how wildlife management would be achieved without support from district authorities, communities and the private sector, there was the need to involve other stakeholders.

This gave birth to the Wildlife Use Rights, ways in which UWA motivates communities to sustainably manage wildlife on both communal and private land. There are six classes of Wildlife Use Rights: hunting, farming, ranching, trading, educational and research and general extraction use rights.

About African Wildlife foundation

The African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), founded in 1961 as the African Wildlife Leadership Foundation, is an international conservation organization that focuses on critically important landscapes in Africa.[1]
AWF’s programs and conservation strategies are designed to protect the wildlife and wild lands of Africa and ensure a more sustainable future for Africa’s people.

Since its inception, the organization has protected endangered species and land, promoted conservation enterprises that benefit local African communities, and trained hundreds of African nationals in conservation—all to ensure the survival of Africa’s unparalleled wildlife heritage.

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