Invasive plants threatening survival of Kidepo wildlife, say experts

Conservationists are concerned about the rapid spread of invasive plants at Kidepo Valley National Park, which they said are threatening food sources for some animals.

The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) said the most common type of invasive plant is the sickle bush, which is a legume plant.

It has invaded more than 500 acres of land in the park and has rapidly spread and colonised the park’s two valley areas, which constitute the northern part.

Experts said the invasive plants are not palatable to many animals and also suppress a lot of vegetation, pushing the wild animals away from the park areas to the communities and fuelling human-wildlife conflicts.

Mr David Okiring, an assistant warden for tourism in Kidepo landscape, said the invasive plants also deform the beauty of the park, noting that Shs40 million is allocated in the quarterly plan to get rid of invasive plants.

“In the Kidepo landscape, we have two types of plants that we have considered invasive, in such a way that they are first of all not palatable to many animals. Secondly, the rate at which they colonise is alarming, and thirdly, where they colonise, they do not allow any vegetation to regenerate from that meaning that they have a lot of impact on the ecosystem,’’ Mr Okiring said.

He said they have faced several challenges in the park for the last two years.

Mr Okiring, however, said they have embarked on rudimentary means by employing the neighboring communities to uproot the invasive plants even though it is not an effective method.

“We started uprooting the invasive plants when we realised that they were suppressing a lot of vegetation and we also realised that most of the animals were not eating vegetation in areas the invasive plants had colonised and were instead invading gardens of neighbouring communities,’’ Mr Okiring said.

He is now urging the Ministry of Tourism and other relevant authorities to increase funding from the current Shs40 million per year for mitigating invasive plants.

Mr Richard Muhabwe, the chief warden of Kidepo Valley National Park, said the invasive plants are among the threats the park faces.

“We have invasive species in the park and when they colonise areas, they deprive animals of their forage,’’ Mr Muhabwe said.

About sickle bush 
Wildlife experts are concerned about spread of sickle bush, an invasive plant (in picture) in parts of Kidepo Valley National Park. The national park covers 1,442 square kilometres.

It is the third largest park in Uganda with a variety of wild animals including buffaloes, lions, zebras, elephants, cheetahs, antelopes, warthogs, giraffes and hundreds of birds, among others.