Uganda’s Dr Gladys wins champions of the earth award 2021

Not many people have dedicated their whole life to conservation in Uganda. And popularly, the misconception lies in thinking that conservation is only about wildlife. With Uganda’s forest cover declining, swamp reclamation on the rise, you cannot but think about what needs to be done to make a sustainable change for now and the future?

The good thing is; we do not need to look outside Uganda to benchmark on issues of community transformation through conservation since we already have people that have made reasonable impacts worth recognition. There are a number of success stories we can tell about people like the Kara Tunga in northern Uganda but allow me to bring you a success story deep in the impenetrable forest of Uganda.

Background

Gorilla trekking is Uganda’s leading tourism icon. That’s good news. Human beings are the leading threat to the existence of mountain gorillas in Uganda. That’s bad news. But something is being done about it.  Here is a story worth retelling about Dr. Gladys Kalema who has won a UN Award of the Champion of the Earth.

In 2003 Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka the daughter of the first female Uganda’s parliamentarian founded a non-government organization known as Conservation Through Public Health. Dr. Gladys who was also the first Uganda Wildlife Authority Vet in the days while it operated as Uganda national parks, came to learn out of her work experience that wildlife more so the mountain gorillas whose DNA is close to that of Human beings suffered from diseases that were confirmed to have been spread from humans to the mountain gorillas.

With such an experience, she realized that researching the health of the people in relation to the mountain gorillas would be one of the best ways to ensure not only the health of the people around the park but also the wildlife; that is to say the mountain gorillas and the Bwindi impenetrable forest national park ecosystem. 

What has been down?

Though Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH) majors on wildlife conservation, it wouldn’t have had its success without community engagement. Community participation is an important element to achieve sustainability within protected areas.

The CTPH has been at the forefront of getting travel communities on board within South Western Uganda. One of these successes has been the Gorilla Conservation Coffee. It is a project that has inspired communities of Bwindi impenetrable National Park to participate in coffee-growing but also adds value to their coffee by creating a Uganda-based coffee brand known as gorilla conservation coffee.

The beneficially of gorilla conservation coffee is not only the mountain gorillas which get a $1.5 per kilo but along the mountain gorilla conservation, the communities also share in the benefits by equally sharing on the gorilla conservation coffee prize.

Their Community conservation engagement is having a reach of more than 500 people with an anticipated multiplier effect reach of about 30,000 people.

Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka stands out as an inspiration for women in the vet field not only in Uganda but internationally. Her 25 years of dedication has seen the endangered mountain gorillas cross the 1000 population mark in the recent past.

The Award

The champion of the earth award saw its inception in 2005 by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) to recognize with the highest honor government leaders, private sector, and civil society personalities whose actions have had a sustainable transformative effect on the environment through their continuous defense, and participation in tackling the environmental challenges of our time.

In the ranks of Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, Nonprofit sea women of Melanesia, activist Maria Kolesnikova; Gladys Kalema Zikusoka has leveled up. She was selected for the science and innovation category. According to Inger Andersen the Executive director of the United Nations environment programme; Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka is a pioneer in community-led wildlife conservation.

Inger Andersen applauded her for her conservation pioneer success story worth benchmarking in regard to how to overcome human and animals conflict through inspiring local communities to lead in protecting the wildlife by themselves in a win-win effort.

With her global recognition, Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka wishes to inspire young Africans in choosing conservation careers. She desires to see the community indigenous people around the protected areas take up the button in spearheading conservation.