THE Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) has turned down an application by a local company to capture and export 280 primates.
Uganda American Pet Exchange, owned by Smith Ewa Maku (left), wanted to export monkeys to undisclosed markets.
Sources said primates are on high demand by pet keepers and researchers in the United States and Europe.
The sources added that bio-medical researchers working on new drugs for human beings preferred to conduct initial trials of medicines on primates.
UWA intends to blacklist the company over various malpractice despite Maku’s claim that UWA’s internal weaknesses have frustrated trade in animals.
Maku said in a letter to UWA, “I wish to once again venture in the capture and export of primate species for which I have found market.”
Maku’s company wants Potas monkey (erthrocebus potas), Debraza monkey (cercepethecus), Black Cheeked White Nosed Monkey (cercopithecus Ascanius), L’hoest Monkey, vervet monkey (cercopithecus Pygerithus) and Mangabey (cercocebus Albigena).
In the letter, Maku said he wanted to capture and export 20 pairs of each species of monkeys.
But Moses Mapesa, UWA’s acting executive director, said the primates were not included on the quota approved by CITES, a global wildlife authority, which allows trade in non-endangered species.
CITES outlaws trade in wild animals listed under Appendix One, which inculdes animal and plant species on the brink of extinction.
Animal rights groups at a one-week workshop on Ngamba Island last week, said the wildlife trade was a cover-up for illegal trade in endangered animals.
Mapesa said only the vervet monkeys had been approved by CITES for trade. He accused Maku of failing to clear obligations with UWA despite several reminders.
But Maku said UWA had imposed charges on animals bred by the traders and that UWA had never gazetted the prices of wild animals.
