Monitor effects of growing traffic in wildlife parks

On Friday, May 3, Uganda National Roads Authority released a statement announcing the closure of Karuma Bridge to heavy-duty traffic.

The bridge is a major north-south link, connecting the rest of Uganda to northern Uganda, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The bridge’s closure has caused several disruptions, chief among which was the need to divert much of the heavy-duty traffic that traditionally uses the bridge.

Since May 6, only vehicles carrying up to 28 occupants are permitted to use the bridge. For at least three months, the rest of the traffic has been diverted via Murchison Falls National Park, and directed to use the Luweero-Kafu-Masindi-Paraa route via the national park, to connect to Pakwach or Gulu and onwards.

While there are some safeguards such as a prescribed speed limit of 40 kilometres per hour for vehicles transiting through the park and the ban on driving through the park after dark, among others, it is hard to discount the effects of increased road traffic on the park’s wildlife.

Unauthorised stops, hooting or the temptation to feed animals are some of the harder safeguards to enforce. Going from handling relatively light traffic to the full load of trucks and buses that would ordinarily cross the bridge, is bound to have profound effects on wildlife. These have not, as yet, been publicly addressed by the Uganda Wildlife Authority, the body charged with protection and management of wildlife inside and outside protected areas in Uganda.

At the very least, animal behaviour and patterns ought to be documented during this three-month period of the Karuma Bridge closure. This will inform future developments inside the park, particularly in relation to oil and gas exploration and any other requirements for traffic diversion through the park.

There is evidence that animals experience unfavourable effects owing to spikes in noise levels and destruction of habitats due to growing human activity in protected zones.  Research has shown that man-made noise pollution can influence behaviour, change physiology, and even reshape animal populations. This is still a growing area of research and we ought to lead the way in commissioning our own studies to establish the long-term effects of human activity in the national park before we cause irreversible damage to our ecosystem.

A bump in the amount of traffic through the wildlife-protected zones is bound to increase the amount of littering, among other effects which could adversely affect wild animals.