However a businessman Mr. Kodet who claims the President of Uganda had offered him Katurumu Lodge to take over management is now facing opposition from the Uganda Wildlife Authority which is mandated to manage all Uganda national parks.

The Uganda Wildlife Authority has asked Mr. Kodet to go through the formal process of acquiring any government asset before developing the national park which is located in the Karamoja sub-region.

According to the Uganda Wildlife Authority Executive Director Mr. Andrew Sseguya business man Cornelius Lorika Kodet is to be stopped from carrying out renovations of the Katurum lodge until he goes through the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority process.

Mr. Kodet is a successful businessman who owns a beach at Entebbe – Aero beach, Apule Safari lodge in the district of Mbale and Mount Moroto hotel in the district of Moroto.

However, the businessman Mr. Kodet has said he will carry on with the construction of Katurum lodge following the directive he got from the President of Uganda. He said that when the Uganda Wildlife Authority had initially wanted to destroy the lodge, they had requested for money from government to do it but he instead asked the President to allow him redevelop it and he got a letter from the then Minister of tourism allowing him to go ahead with the construction and renovations. Mr. Kodet says he has an investment plan and intends to go ahead with his construction works.

Katurum lodge was constructed in the 1970s but was later vandalized after the government of Idi Amin was ousted in 1979. To make it functional the business man has put on a new roof and is doing renovation activities in the interior of the lodge. However, Mr. Sseguya says that the businessman can only go ahead if he follows the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets process as well as the letter from the then Minister of Tourism Mr. Kahinda Otafiire.

Katurum lodge is a property of the Uganda Wildlife Authority and was recently advertised in the International Tender of Joint Ventures.

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Uganda national parks had in the past seen a drastic decline in the number of tourists and wildlife. The leading national parks in Uganda visited by tourists is Murchison falls national park and Queen Elizabeth national park. However, the leading tour attraction in Uganda is the mountain gorillas. Mountain gorilla trekking in Uganda is carried out in Bwindi national park as well as Mgahinga national park occasionally.

However like any industry, tourism has also got its hurdles and setbacks in Uganda. The recent Al-shabab attacks on Kenya’s tourists has helped see an increase in the number of tourists visiting Uganda. The governments of UK and USA have warned their citizens about traveling to Kenya. However, most of these warning are not warranted given the hard work the Kenyan government has put into ensuring the safety of the tourists coming to Kenya. The leading Kenya travel packages which is Masai Mara safaris is also in a region far from the Somali border where most of the insecurity had taken place.

In Uganda, the Country is enjoying good political stability and the number of tourists is increasing steadily. However there was bad tourism publicity recent from a tourist who visited the Murchison falls national park. A visit to Murchison falls national park is probably is however one of the most romantic Uganda safari packages.

Tsetse flies have affected the areas around Murchison falls national park and this has been worrying stakeholders in the tourism industry. However the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries has now embarked on the process of eradicating tsetse flies in the region.

Mr. Luyimbazi Fredrick the Assistant Commissioner for Entomology has said that this will help boost tourist confidence in the area. Mr. Luyimbazi Fredrick visited the region recently during a Murchison falls safari and found that the number of tsetse flies in the region had greatly reduced.

The Assistant Commissioner toured Red Chilli rest house, Sambiya River lodge and the Uganda Wildlife Authority offices all which are located in the Murchison falls national park. He urged government to invest in the eradication of tsetse flies in the region.

There was an incident where a tourist provided negative publicity about the tourism in the Country. A tourist visited Murchison Falls national park in August 2011 and posted bad reviews about the place saying it swarmed with tsetse which is actually not true. The tourist was telling other tourists not to visit the region.

The entomologist said one other solution to the tsetse flies is spraying with environmentally friendly pesticides.

Apart from gorilla safaris in Bwindi, the other top Uganda travel package is a Murchison falls safari.

In the 5th century it is recorded that the a gorilla was spotted  by the first person from the western world, a Roman explorer

Types of Gorilas

There are 3 subspecies of gorillas depending on who you listen to since these distinctions are very slight. All these are found in the African continent ranging from the west African country of Cameroon to the East African country of Uganda. These are;

* Western Lowland Gorilla (gorilla gorilla)

* Eastern Lowland Gorilla (gorilla graueri)

* Mountain Gorilla (gorilla berengei)

Distribution Of Gorilla Subspecies

Western Lowland Gorillas

Despite the many hazards that these gorillas faces such as poaching for bush meat there are an estimated 10,000-35,000 lowland gorillas living in the wild, however, there are also those living in captivity in various zoos around the world. Those living in the wild are found in the African countries of Cameroon, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, and Gabon

Eastern Lowland Gorillas (Gorilla Graueri)

Approximately 4,000 free-living. Less than 24 in captivity. Found in eastern Zaire.

Mountain  Gorillas

Approximately 800 free-living. Zero in captivity. Found in 285 square miles in the rain forests of Rwanda, Uganda and Zaire.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Height:

Males 5′6″ upright, 4′6″ normal stance. Females 5′ upright, 3′6″ – 4′ normal stance.

Weight:

Males 300-500 lbs. Females 150-250 lbs. Babies from one to three years weigh between 20-30 lbs.

Arm Span:

Up to 9′2” (one male specimen).

Color:

Black or brown-gray fur with black skin on chests, palms and faces. Red heads are common in Camaroon gorillas especially. Males develop a silver back as they mature.

Stance:

Gorillas are quadrupedal. They walk on all fours with the soles of their feet flat on the ground and the knuckles of the hands curled and planted on the ground.

Recognition:
Gorillas recognize each other by their faces and body shapes. Each gorilla has a unique nose print. The differences between mountain gorillas and lowland gorillas are slight and result mainly from adaptation to high altitudes. Mountain gorillas have longer body hair, higher foreheads, longer palates, larger nostrils, broader chests, shorter arms, shorter, wider hands and feet.

GROWTH/MATURATION

Gestation is 8-1/2 months. There are typically 3-4 years between births. Infants stay with their mothers for 3-4 years. Females mature at 10-12 years (earlier in captivity); males 11-13 years, sometimes sooner if they assume leadership early. Lifespan is between 30-50 years.

EATING

Gorillas eat some 200 types of leaves, tubers, flowers, fruit, fungus and some insects. Favorite foods include bamboo, thistles and wild celery. Gorillas do not drink water. They obtain all the moisture they need from the vast amounts of foliage they consume. Males consume approximately 50 lbs. a day.

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Uganda unlike other holiday destinations in Africa has very fertile land that is well watered with dense forest and many rivers, streams and lakes. It has many safari attractions to offer but the major highlight is the mountain gorilla trekking. Ranging from wildlife safaris, birding safaris to adventure sporting activities like white water rafting, kayaking and bungee jumping along the Nile river, Uganda has lots of tour attractions however of all these mountain gorilla safari is the major tourism foreign exchange earner and is unique to Uganda and Rwanda.

The Ugandan forests of Bwindi are home to the rarest and most majestic of all the apes, the mountain gorilla.  There are few wildlife experiences that can compare to tracking a family of mountain gorillas through the thick, tropical rainforests of Uganda. George Schaller famously stated that “No one who looks into a gorilla’s eyes – intelligent, gentle, vulnerable – can remain unchanged, for the gap between ape and human vanishes, we know that the gorilla still lives within us”. Gorillas and Uganda wildlife tour packages are some of the most unique in Africa and lonely planet voted Uganda the best travel destination.

The Virunga national park is the oldest national park in Africa and was opened in 1924, however, the park has seen a lot of political instability over the years. However since the eruption of the mountains the number of tourists visiting the region has more than double compared to a year early. In November this year the park saw 350 people visiting the park in comparison to 150 people who visited the park last year. The park was effectively the home of the rebels led by Laurent Nkunda who completely paralysed any tourist activities in the wildlife reserve in 2008. However after the defeat of the rebels the park was opened to tourists again in 2009 with 550 tourists visiting the park. In 2010 the park saw 1,800 tourists and it is expected that this year will see the park record about 4,000 tourists with an estimated one million US dollars in tourist dollars. The Nyamulagira is Africa’s most active volcanic mountain and began its eruption in November this year.

Mountain gorillas and Uganda safari packages

It has been erupting for the last month and is attracting tourists in their droves. The eruption has been so spectacular and offers great photographic opportunities. Although the Virungas is a World heritage site, its future is in jeopardy given the political unrest the Country and the region has faced. The current dispute of the results of the elections and sensitive political atmosphere in the Country may put the future of the park at risk. The eruption was over 200 meters high with spectacular colors lighting up the skies above attracting droves of tourists to this beautiful Country. The costs of running the Virunga national park is estimated at 3.8 million US dollars annually and 80 per cent of the money comes from the European Union which is set to end in 2012. Given the current economic crisis in Europe the parks future is so uncertain. Of the money raise from tourist dollars 50% goes to the ministry of tourism while 30% goes to maintaining schools and clinics as well as creating jobs in the local community. The park managements keeps 20% and with the current eurozone economic crisis the future of the Virunga national park is bleak.

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In order to carry out better conservation plans for the highly endangered mountain gorillas, International Gorilla Conservation Program – IGCP is carrying out a census of the gorillas in Bwindi and Mgahinga national parks. The census is expected to run till the 20^th of October 2011 in which the population of mountain gorillas is expected to have risen by 26% according to projections from the 2006 population census.

Mr. Stephen Asuma who is the International Gorilla Conservation Program Country representative in Uganda said that it is imperative for Government to help in the sensitization as well as the promotion of gorilla tourism to both local and the international community as this is one way of raising both awareness about the plight of the mountain gorillas as well as the money needed to help in conserving the mountain gorillas.

According to Mr. Asuma in the 2006 census the number of mountain gorillas recorded in Bwindi impenetrable national park were 340 gorillas meaning it has half of the number of mountain gorillas in the wild in Africa.

The only way to ensure the preservation of mountain gorillas in the wild is through tourism, however the fact that they have 97% of our DNA means that they are very susceptible to diseases that humans suffer from. Unlike humans however who have medicines to treat these common illnesses, diseases like Ebola can easily wipe out the mountain population to the point of return.

Mountain gorilla trekking in Bwindi national park is carried out at the moment in 6 families with 8 mountain gorilla permits sold per family. However during the months of July and August which are in peak season the permits are usually sold out. A gorilla safari in Bwindi is actually the number one Uganda tourism attraction.

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In addition to this, Mizano was the only black-back in his family meaning there is no heir to the Habinyanja family. A black back is a male that grows into a silver back gorilla which is usually the head of family.

According Lillian Nsubuga the spokesperson of the Uganda Wildlife Authority, the sentence passed is utterly shocking and UWA intends to bring the matter up with the office of the chief Justice. She said that although they do not intend to appeal, the punishment meted out against the perpetrators of this crime is not befitting. It can’t therefore help in deterring any future poachers from not only entering the national park but also from killing this endangered species.

Poaching although greatly reduced is still being carried in many of Uganda’s national parks. During a recent trip to Murchison falls national park I was shocked to find out that it is very easy to get game meat provided that you are in the know. For hippo meat for instance all one has to do is ask for “Machar” which when translated means charcoal and you will be availed the kilograms you want.

This practice unless curbed will not help the tourism industry compared to our neighbors in the region. The number of wildlife for instance in our celebrated national parks is way too small these days for anyone to compare with those in Masai Mara game reserve which are readily available. One would have to drive long distances for a number of days for instance in Murchison falls or Queen Elizabeth national park to be able to see lions which is not the case in the Serengeti or Masai Mara national park.

The lion population in Lake Mburo national park for instance has been decimated by the cattle keepers in the region. Even the leopard population has almost been wiped out (that is if they are still there).  Unless Ugandans begin to realize the economic potential of tourism, they will carry on killing animals in the game reserves for food and short-term economic gains. A tourist who had paid top-dollar for a Uganda safari recently told us that she had to do another Kenya safari because she had not seen the big five in Uganda. This is a shame considering the our national parks which were once teeming with wildlife are slowly but steadily being poached.

The culprits Amos Kazongo, Fideli Begumisa and Ronald Byamugisha from Kanungu District in June using spears killed Mizano, the black from Habinyanja family of mountain gorillas.

Under Schedule 1 of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species mountain gorillas are considered highly-endangered wildlife species. With a population estimated to be about 800 only in the wild, these gentle giants can only be found in Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.  Mountain gorillas ranked highest among the contributors to the foreign exchange earnings in tourism in Uganda

The source of the Biblical Nile River is also located in the Country and has some of the World’s best places for white water rafting in the whole World. The Country also has 1047 recorded bird species is an area the size of the British Isle. This accounts for over 50% of all the bird species in Africa, 10% of all the bird species recorded in the World with many of them being endemic to the region including the fox weaver bird.

The Country is teeming with flora and fauna and has over 10 national parks and with over 18.2% of the land covered by wetlands, rivers and lakes. Given its geographical location with the equator cutting across, Uganda has diverse vegetation cover making provide good habitat for different animal species.

In the West is the Mountains of the Moon – Mount Stanley which is the highest mountain range in Africa with the third highest peak in Africa. The rest of the land is full of rainforests as well as plains with Savannah grasslands

However despite of all this beauty, Uganda’s tourism potential is not very well known to the outside world and is the least visited among the Countries in East Africa which do a lot of marketing of their tourism potential to the outside world.

The efforts by local Uganda tour operators has however enabled the Country garner a lot of foreign exchange making it the second highest foreign exchange earner to the Country for the last couple of years. The government has for the last 3 years been able to allocated only $3.45 million dollars for the tourism industry in Uganda which is a pittance compared to the over $10 million dollars which Kenya has been allocating to marketing tourism in Kenya.

The Uganda Tourism Board is meant to getting about $900,000 of the total money allocated to marketing tourism in Uganda which is way too little compared to what many Countries are doing to make their tourism industry. The failure to prioritize Uganda’s tourism industry has led to the other Countries in the region, Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya out competing Uganda.

Going by the statistics, in 2009 Uganda’s tourism brought in $572 million and $660 million dollars in 2010 which is a great contribution to the economy coming in only second remittances from Ugandans living in the diaspora.

According to experts in the industry, Uganda needs $30 million annually to market itself to key source markets like the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and other markets in Asia like China and Japan as a key holiday destination in Africa.

Going by the figures from the World Tourism Council, the USA, Germany, UK, France and China are the biggest travel spenders and doing target marketing in these Countries would see Uganda have an increase in the influx of tourists from these destinations. Uganda’s leading tourist arrivals are mainly African’s who are considered the lowest spenders in the industry.

Gorilla tours in Uganda is the leading tourism foreign exchange earner accounting for over 80% of the funds the Country receives.

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Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary located in the District of Nakasongola which has been in the spotlight during the probe into the Protected Areas Management for Sustainable Use – PAMSU a project under Uganda Wildlife Authority.

This bad publicity has however been countered with the birth of a baby rhino at the Sanctuary which sees the number of total rhinos in the Country go up to 13 in total.

During the turbulent political times of Idi Amin, rhinos were poached to extinction in the Country. People hunted the rhinos for their horns which were on high demand as a source of materials for artifacts as well as medical portions by traditional herbalists.

The birth of this female rhino now brings the population of the rhinos at Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary to 11 and in addition to the two rhinos at Uganda Wildlife Education Center this makes the population of the rhinos 13 in total in Country that once had an astonishing number of rhinos. It is also the only female to born in Uganda for over 30 years.

The rhino sanctuary according to the executive director of Rhino Fund Uganda, Angie Genade has only three females excluding the newly born female. Rhinos have a gestation period of 16 months and if there’s any mishap in their reproduction their population growth would be greatly hampered. There’s need to have then reproduce quickly so as to reintroduce them in to the national parks in which their population was whipped out in 1982/83.

The population of rhinos has been reduced drastically across Africa due to poaching for their horns. It is a believed by many especially in Asia that their horns act as an aphrodisiac.

The last rhino to be born in Uganda was in January 2^nd last year and it was named Justice. Baby Justice was born to Kori a different mother to that of the new female baby rhino.

The Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary has become a feature most of Uganda safari packages especially for tourists enroute to Murchison falls national park. A Murchison falls safari will soon include rhinos if the population of the rhinos in Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary increases and they are reintroduced to the park.

Uganda has a lot to offer including mountain gorillas and for your mountain gorilla tours visit www.gorillatoursinuganda.com

CRIME? Scaring a woman. Sentence? Death by spearing. This was the recent verdict of a ‘village kangaroo court’ against a chimpanzee accused of scaring a woman out of her skin in the tiny village of Rwobuhuka, Kabwoya Sub-county in Hoima District. The woman screamed after an encounter with a wild chimp on a village path, attracting a mob that resolved to end the life of the beast.

The cruel act did not go unnoticed. The flesh-smelling hands of the bloodthirsty villagers provoked the proverbial “long arm of the law” from Hoima town to intervene. They rounded up three suspects in an attempt to avenge the death of an endangered species.

The Rwobuhuka chimp is not the first to suffer at the hands of the humans and will probably not be the last one. In a related incident, a chimp in Kibale was speared recently, but recovered after treatment.

Every year, an average of five chimpanzees get caught up and killed in such conflicts, but the number could be higher since some cases remain unreported, says Lilly Ajarova, the director of Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary and Wildlife Conservation Trust.

Life is sweet, Ajarova says, “but the life of chimps in the forests outside protected forest patches in the districts of Bunyoro is as sweet as pain dipped in honey”.

In some cases, she says the chimps end up landing in the snares set by farmers to get rid of crop-raiding animals or by hunters with an intention of catching antelopes. Chimps have been caught in snares, ranging from wires made from barbed wire fences to large traps weighing six kilogrammes fabricated from spare parts of lorries. This leads to excessive bleeding of the victims and sometimes the lucky ones become disabled.

More than one quarter of 5,000 chimps encountered five years ago were disabled by the snares, according to a report of the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA). This, according to Ajarova, impairs the ability of the chimps to fend for the young ones and increases their vulnerability in the battle for survival.
Farmers speak out about the losses caused by wild animals.

Julius Kwamya has given up growing cocoa. “Chimps spend more time on my land than in the forest,” he says. “With chimps around, you can only harvest about 10% of the cocoa. The rest is eaten by the chimps,”

Kwamya says. “I have opted to grow water-melons in order to earn an income.”
They bite the pods with their hard teeth, releasing the contents, which they feast on before moving to the neighbour’s plantation to eat sugar cane and jackfruit.

Despite the losses, Kwamya’s view is that chimps do not deserve to be killed. “Chimps are endangered and they are a wonderful heritage,” he says.

Hoima District environment officer Joycelyne Nyangoma has conducted a research on the effects of crop-raiding animals and discovered that cocoa farmers like Kwamya suffer as a result of chimps, but not many farmers grow cocoa. “Chimps love cocoa and sugar cane,” she says. “The biggest problem is baboons and vervet monkeys because they will destroy even what they are not going to eat.”

Vermin (baboons and vervet monkeys) are affecting the livelihoods of the farmers. “When the crops of the subsistence farmers are eaten, their incomes and livelihoods are also threatened. People are kept in the vicious cycle of poverty,” Nyangoma says.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. In some cases, children have had to be deployed to watch over the gardens. But Nyangoma says that her research discovered that most farmers attach little value to education. “They want their children to go to the garden or market, not school,” she says.  Uganda gorilla safari

Others, particularly the sugar cane farmers, set deadly traps to protect their crops. The sugar cane farmers are seen as more progressive and they are prepared to protect their profits at all costs, according to Nyangoma.

Receding forest cover
Over the last four years, massive deforestation has been taking place across the country. But the districts of Bunyoro; comprising Bulisa, Masindi, Hoima and Kibale have suffered more than the other parts of the country in the recent past. “I started work in Hoima four years ago and I have seen a lot of deforestation. There are places where I went and saw well-stocked forests, but they are not there today,” she says.  Mabira forest

Six weeks ago, chimpanzee conservationists camped in Hoima and mobilised communities for tree planting in order to restore the degraded areas. But one day the team found trees on private land massively chopped down on the Hoima-Munteme road.

“We encountered over 20 acres of private forest cut down overnight,” says Ajarova. “This exposes the chimps because it directly affects their habitat.”  chimpanzee tracking

When the chimps come tracing their habitats (the forests) which are supposed to be passages connecting the large forest reserves, they find farmland. “It is very frustrating on the part of the chimps as what they have called home is suddenly cut down into farmland. Chimpanzee trekking.  The thinking is much like a human being living in a three-bedroomed house with everything you need and when you go back from work, you find two of the rooms demolished,” she says.

A heritage and keystone species
Chimp conservationists like Ajarova warn that the chimps are key stone species meaning that their habitats have a lot of biological wealth and ecological services. “The forests are sources of streams and rivers,” she says. “When the forests are cut down, the chimpanzees get exposed and could disappear. The human population will also perish.”

Chimps think about tomorrow
The wildlife conservationist who started her career at UWA says the chimps are humans’ closest cousins since they share more than 98% of their genes. “Did you know that chimpanzees think ahead of time like human beings?” asks Ajarova.

Chimps are part of the country’s heritage and the cornerstone for the growing primate tourism, according to Ajarova. Humans’ survival is tied together with the chimps. “What shall we tell our children and grandchildren if we lose this heritage? asks Ajarova.

Though the chimps are increasingly threatened everyday, Ajarova cherishes each step taken to secure their survival.

End

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