High wildlife crimes worry officials

A warden walks “Charles”, the young elephant, around the centre. “Charles” can perform different activities including sitting, eating and running on the orders of his friend, the warden. Photo by Dominic Bukenya

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Solution? Officials want the Uganda Wildlife Act amended to incorporate more punitive laws to curb the vice

Fear of wildlife extinction dominated World Wildlife Day celebrations on Tuesday at the Uganda Wildlife Educational Centre (UWEC), Entebbe.

“Damaging wildlife has far reaching implication” said Andrew Seguya, the executive director of Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), in his message of the day.

“Most of the communities living around wildlife habitats, such as national parks and game reserves, are poor,” he said.

This resonates with James Musinguzi, the UWEC executive director’s revelation that most of the animals at the facility are as a result of wildlife crimes. They were impounded from wildlife encroachers. For instance, UWEC rescued 164 and 120 animals in 2013 and 2014 respectively.

Alas, Uganda, which boasts of more than 10 national parks, which are habitats to a wide range of animals and plant species, is threatened by high wildlife crime rate. The national parks contain amazing variety of habitats ranging from snow-capped mountain peaks, tropical forests and savanna plains.

The celebration was coloured with exhibitions of different section of the animals’ centre, most of which highlighted the ways of protecting and conserving wildlife.

All attendants had a chance to tour the facility and see various species of animals, birds and reptiles. Beautiful birds, medicinal plants, reptiles and lionesses were other draw cards on their own.

The function, which started with touring the vet unit, also involved interludes of performances and skits from students of St Mary College Kisubi, Nkumba University, Makerere University, and Gorilla Doctors group.

This was galvanised by wildlife rangers, who unveiled their idiosyncratic techniques of handling and living with wild animals in harmony. Not to mention the highlight of “Charles”, the young elephant, which operates on the instructions of its “friend”, the warden. Of course, not every warden there is friend to it, but only a few who have interacted with it for a while. “Charles” can be ordered to perform different things like sitting, eating and running.

To reflect on the theme of this year’s celebration: “Wildlife Crime Is Serious, Let us Get Serious About Wildlife Crime’’, the chief guest, Vincent De-Paul Kayanja, the Entebbe Municipality Mayor, planted a tree as a gesture of wildlife conservation.

Although the theme was determined by United Nations (UN), it also connects well with the plight of tourism, Uganda’s leading foreign exchange earner that contributed 7.9 per cent of GDP in 2013 (about sh5.5 trillion).

For the past three years, there have been high wildlife crimes committed on the sector. This not only threatens the tourism sector, but also threaten the existence of humans.

“By destroying wildlife, we are enemies of our own existence,” Kayanja warned.
Statistics of wildlife crimes obtained from UWA only serve to affirm the origin of his fear. For instance, in 2014, Murchison Falls conservation area only had more than 180 crimes reported.
Queen Elizabeth conservation area had more than 100 crimes. These are only for those who were caught.

As a way of creating more awareness, Kayanja urged the government to mainstream wildlife conservation in the education curriculum as a way of imparting conservation knowledge to Ugandans. He also urged people to be more cautious and to act as ambassadors of conservation.

Way forward
Amendment of Wildlife Act
Mr James Lutalo, the commissioner for wildlife in the ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities, pointed out that as a way of combating wildlife crimes, the government is reviewing the Uganda Wildlife Act to incorporate more punitive laws to curb poaching, encroachment on wildlife and illegal wildlife trade.

The general penalty for offences committed against the current Wildlife Act, 2000, CAP 200, stipulates that if proven guilty, a person will pay a fine of not less than Shs30,000 but not exceeding Shs3 million or face imprisonment for a term of not less than three months or both.

Game rangers and intelligence
As a way to reinforce other methods of protecting wildlife, Andrew Seguya, the executive director of Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), said the authority recruited 700 rangers in 2014, with a purpose of increasing direct monitoring of wildlife reserves.

He added that UWA has also devised intelligence mechanisms to help in gathering information about activities of wildlife crimes. This is meant to increase surveillance control over wildlife encroachers. “We currently have 80 intelligence officers in various communities”, he said.

Wildlife farming
The ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities called upon the public to apply for wildlife farming as one of the measures to boost wildlife, a concept Seguya said is the principle to do with sustainable conservation.

This, according to Seguya, will allow people to farm non-domestic animals for trade. “People can buy eggs of wild animals, hatch them and sell to the public or other countries,” he explained.
However, this will be done under the watch of the wildlife ministry.

“The wildlife department creates awareness about the importance of wildlife, mainly among people around wildlife conservation areas”, he said. “But the local people also need livelihood”.
Currently, wildlife gives 20 per cent of the gate collection on national parks to local governments in respective areas. This money is meant to improve the livelihood and infrastructures in those areas. Seguya said wildlife also gives special consideration to people in wildlife conservation areas when recruiting game rangers.

World wildlife day
The World Wildlife Day, which is observed on March 3 every year has a general aim of creating awareness about the importance of flora and fauna. Uganda joined the rest of the world to celebrate the day of adoption of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).