Govt seeks Shs10b to breed more lions
Chairperson of the Tourism, Trade and Industry Committee Mwine Mpaka (right) flanked by the Sheema South MP, Mr Elijah Mushemeza, during a committee session at Parliament on Wednesday. PHOTO/parliament
What you need to know:
The move aims to address the declining lion population and mitigate threats such as human-wildlife conflict.
The Uganda Wildlife Education Centre (UWEC) management has tabled a request of Shs10 billion to facilitate the breeding of lions in at least three national game parks next financial year.
The request was laid before the Budget Committee through the Committee on Tourism, Trade and Industry which has since Monday been receiving reports from sectoral committees about the 2024/25 Budget Framework Papers of various Ministries Departments Agencies (MDAs).
According to the chairperson of the Trade committee, Mr Mwine Mpaka, the money is meant to enable government to multiply the population of lions that is already said to be dwindling.
“Tourism requires Shs10b to start breeding lions through Uganda Wildlife Education Centre (UWEC). We now have 15 lions at UWEC which we have been breeding, but the lion population in the country has gone down because of human wildlife conflict. We are now going to start breeding them in the wild in Queen Elizabeth, Kidepo and Murchison Falls National parks,” Mr Mpaka told colleagues on the Budget committee.
He said: “So the ministry requires money to set up different facilities within the national parks where we are going to be breeding and releasing them, for example whenever we have enough, we can release five at ago into the wild just to increase the lion population.
“It is basically like a cage within a national park, so they will be monitored and treated to create a conducive environment for them to breed and survive in order to increase the population because we are losing several lions every year due to the human-wildlife conflict, electric fences, poisoning. So we need to bring these lions back to our game parks.”
He reasoned that this decision to consider the said budget is due to the sharp decline in the number of lions in the country.
“We see that we are losing about 120 lions per year. We are looking at the possibility of releasing 15 lions every two years,” Mr Mpaka said.
Information before Parliament indicates that Shs248.7 billion is planned for the tourism sector, although Mr Mpaka stated that the sector has a shortage of Shs309 billion required to bankroll the unfunded priorities of the said sector.
Considering that government is already constrained on several fronts, Mr Mpaka revealed that his committee resolved to consider unfunded priorities of Shs96.3 billion for areas deemed to be more critical for the sector to embark on in the 2024/2025 Financial Year.
Polish stained image
Legislators on the Trade committee also want counterparts on the budget committee to endorse Shs4 billion required by the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) to clean up the negative image on Uganda’s tourism sector.
For instance, in October last year, two foreign tourists and a Ugandan were killed in the Queen Elizabeth National Park in Kasese District. The three comprising a South African citizen, British national and a Ugandan tour guide were killed at Nyamunuka on Katwe Road in Kasese District.
The UTB will also spend the money on global media houses such as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the National Geographic and the US based Cable News Network (CNN) to circulate positive messages about Uganda’s tourism sector.
Additionally, Shs1 billion is being planned to enable Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) to televise and popularise the country’s various tourism destinations on the several platforms run under the national broadcaster.
