IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Averbeck, C. | |
| Population ecology of impala (_Aepyceros melampus_) and community-based wildlife conservation in Uganda | |
| 2002 Full Book | |
With a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of US$ 6.7 M. in 1998 and a per capita Gross National Product (GNP) of US$ 320 in 1997, Uganda is one of the poorest countries in Africa (Stanbic Bank Africa 2000). Rural communities in Uganda, like in other parts of Africa, face substantial challenges. About 90% of the population of Uganda depend on the agricultural sector for their livelihood. Due to an annual population growth of 3.1%, land is becoming a scarce resource. In order to earn a living, the landowners feel the need to intensify and diversify their land use systems. On the one hand, intensifying the land use system often leads to the unsustainable use of natural resources and to a loss of biodiversity. On the other hand, new, sustainable opportunities for the diversification of land use systems are not recognised or implemented (Child 1995). The Ugandan economy is dominated by the agricultural sector. The single most important component of an appropriate strategy for reducing poverty and hunger in Uganda is therefore the promotion of sustainable agriculture. In Uganda, the poorest people are typically those, however, who have diversified least into forms of income other than agriculture; only the process of diversification will offer households the opportunity to lift themselves out of poverty (Mackinnon et al. 1997). The people are trapped in an accelerating poverty vortex with devastating consequences for the natural environment, including the habitats essential to wild animals. There is an interdependence in densely populated countries between human well-being and environmental conservation. An increasing scarcity of resources is resulting in intensified competition between a growing human population and wild animals. The only solution for both human societies and the environment lies in improving the yield from the land without causing further degradation (Mackinnon et al. 1997). Across the Ugandan savannas dramatic changes are occurring. Grasslands are being put under the plough, trees felled, and wildlife is decreasing. Pockets of wilderness survive or appear to survive as protected areas but even there species richness of large mammals is decreasing. The fate of Ugandan's rich communities of large herbivores and their associated predators rests in the hand of man (Lamprey & Michelmore 1996a). Wildlife can occur in two different situations, those inside and those outside protected areas. Terborgh (1999) states that National Parks are the last bastions of nature but "few are large enough to maintain healthy populations of top predators". Most areas with a protection status are too small to ensure the long-term survival of the majority of animal species that live in them (Soul‚ 1986). A majority of Parks exist only on paper, having no staff whatsoever. Most are poorly designed, the boundaries having been drawn in such a way as to make them indefensible against encroachment. A great many have people living in them. A significant number are already seriously degraded by illegal activity. Some no longer exist in a biological sense (Terborgh 1999). Moreover wildlife has no value outside the protected areas, it dwindles and disappears either through active persecution, loss of habitat, or competition with livestock (Prins & Grootenhuis 2000). Sustainable game utilization outside protected areas could be a new form of land use system for Uganda. It may contribute to rural development and therefore to poverty reduction in the rural communities and help to redress environmental degradation. It furthermore may help to conserve biological diversity inside and outside protected areas. In order to survive wildlife and protected areas must be socio-politically acceptable, economically viable and ecologically sustainable (Child 1995). |
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