The conservation battle at Mt Elgon; is it lost?
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Loading... - Lydia Atim
- 03 Apr 2023
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“They slaughtered an animal, skinned it and placed it on a stick at the entrance to Uganda Wildlife Authority Camp.
“Then they covered the entire ground with blood such that anybody would get scared.”
“And sometime back, the encroachers rolled stones down the hills to Mukoto UWA Camp in Namisindwa district and armed with spears, machetes and stones, the encroachers attacked the rangers, leading to a fight that left two rangers killed and several others injured”
“This is what the encroachers have been doing to scare UWA from evicting them from the park, from poaching animals, grazing and farming inside the park. And this practice of witchcraft increases when we intensify operations to forcefully rid the park of encroachers,” said Mr Fred Kizza, the Mt Elgon conservation area manager.
UWA Records indicate that out of about 3,000 hectares of the park land encroached on in Mt Elgon; UWA has recovered about 2,058 hectares. “This is a positive sign that the UWA may eventually win this war on encroachment,” says Mr Kizza.
However, this Mt Elgon conservation battle is coming at a cost. Mr Kizza says Mt Elgon conservation has pitted them against residents who use machetes, knives and spears to attack UWA rangers.
According to Mr Kizza the communities around Mt Elgon park are very harsh; they have killed, injured and maimed permanently many UWA rangers who are on the mission to conserve; one of their mandates.
UWA, the institution mandated to oversee wildlife management in Uganda has been having a lot of challenges with the communities living near Mt Elgon national park due to lack of clear boundary demarcation and failure by the Park neighbouring communities to understand the importance of conservation.
The tensions between fighters from the communities surrounding the park and UWA rangers have heightened to high degrees putting the lives of the rangers in a precarious position
These battles – over park land, park resources and ownership of the parkland – have seen several communities living around the park fighting against anybody in UWA uniform and anybody they suspect to be an ally to UWA.
Today for game rangers at Mt Elgon, conserving and protecting wildlife has become a life-threatening mission since poaching, timber thieving and encroachment have become the fastest growing crimes in the national parks in Uganda.
Many rangers in Mt Elgon national park face the threat of death daily in the line of duty, from communities living around the park and even from the wild animals they are meant to protect.
Efforts by UWA to educate the frontline communities on the role of community conservation have landed on deaf ears as the communities insist on tilling the land in Mt Elgon conservation without conserving
Mr Richard Matanda, warden in charge of Bokora-Matheniko Game reserve under Mt Elgon says communities are the true owners of nature and play a fundamental role in the conservation of biological diversity and the protection of forests and other natural resources; their traditional knowledge on climate variability can also enrich substantively scientific knowledge and adaptation activities of others. Read More…
