How appetite for bush meat is wiping out wildlife in West Nile

Daudi Ocama, 68, grew up in Pakwach with a craving for bush meat because it was regarded as a special diet for elders.

At the age of 14, Ocama’s relatives would send him and his peers to hunt warthog, kobs, and any other wild game for meat.

To date, Ocama cherishes the delicacy. “The meat from warthog, buffalos, and other game is beefy and when cooked with simsim or groundnut paste, it becomes even tastier,” he says.

“I believe they are more nutritious and healthier than cow or goat meat. That is why people opt for them despite it being illegal to poach them,” he adds.

However, the game meat is becoming hard to find due to restrictions by the wildlife authority.

“What is limiting nowadays is it has become expensive because the game rangers have intensified enforcement against game hunting,” he says.

Nevertheless, Ocama says many people still defy the wildlife authorities because bush meat is an irresistible delicacy.

In some parts of West Nile, a portion of bush meat, which is preferred sun-dried or smoked, costs between Shs15,000 and Shs45,000.

On a cloudy afternoon in a bushy Madi-Okollo area, Mr Saverino Candia, armed with bows and arrows, sets out to hunt for game meat to feed his family. But he says such hunting expeditions have now become difficult because the animals are few and not easy to find.

“It is only the tiny squirrels that are still many. We identify them from their footmarks and holes they create for their hideaways. They are common during the dry season and are very nutritious for the family,” he says.

Poaching usually peaks in the West Nile Sub-region during the dry season that runs from December to March. This is the time when bush burning is high and the animals leave their hideaways in search of water.

But on the downside, poaching of wildlife for meat is a major threat to conservation and undermines the achievement of the full benefit of wildlife resources. 

Effects
As a result, a huge number of wildlife species have either been displaced by human settlements or have been hunted down. For instance, the vast Bidibidi area in Yumbe that once provided a safe haven for wild animals has now been turned into a refugee settlement.

But a few of the game species such as squirrels and warthogs have continued to survive in the bushy fringes of the refugee settlements.

Bush meat hunting in Africa is done for two primary reasons, namely for food and income. It is also the main source of meat for an average household living in proximity to major hunting sites such as Murchison Falls National Park, the forested areas of Metu in Moyo, and Liru mountains in Koboko.

In the jungles of Mountain Wati in Terego District, a youthful George Acidri, returns home with an edible rat, which is a cherished delicacy here.

He confesses: “I don’t think eating edible rats or grass cutters (anabia) can stop here because it is our delicacy. Almost everyone eats it, especially when you are a native of Terego. So we should be left to eat the cane cutters freely.”

It remains unknown whether the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) also controls the hunting of edible rats in order to preserve the species from extinction.

But Mr Bashir Hangi, the UWA public relation officer, says UWA has functional intelligence, investigations and prosecution units that work closely with the law enforcement units although poachers continue to defy the laws.

Mr Hangi says they are struggling to minimise poaching and that several offenders have been arrested and prosecuted.

“One poacher was sentenced to life imprisonment. Poaching steals from us all. Animals are one of the biggest attractions so when they are poached, their number keeps reducing. This affects tourism and revenue,” he says.

Poaching has continued despite the Uganda Wildlife Act 2019 that prohibits the practice.

The law
Section 70(a) of the UWA Act 2019 spells for first offence a fine of not exceeding 350 currency points or imprisonment not exceeding 10 years or both.

In the case of a second or subsequent offence, Section 70(b) spells a fine not exceeding 500 currency points or imprisonment not exceeding 20 years or both. A currency point is Shs20,000.

Data from UWA in 2020 shows that between February and June, they recorded 367 cases of poaching across the country, more than double the 163 cases recorded during a similar period in 2019.

Tourism is one of Uganda’s leading foreign exchange earners, reaping $1.6 billion (about Shs6 trillion) in the 2018 and 2019 financial year alone.

Background
In 2019, UWA through funding from the United Kingdom on Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund, set up the National Wildlife Crime Coordination Task Force (NWCCTF) to address the challenges of bribery and corruption that continue to render law enforcement efforts ineffective.

But connected networks of wildlife criminals still take advantage of loopholes to bribe their way out of prosecution.