The Uganda Wildlife Education Centre (UWEC) is seeking for sh10 billion in its 2024/25 budget to embark on breeding of lions.

The chairperson Parliament Committee on Trade and Tourism, Mwine Mpaka justified the budgetary allocation to increase the lions’ population after their numbers dropped from 460 in 2022 to around 320 lions, due to human-wildlife conflicts.

“Tourism requires sh10 billion to start breeding lions through Uganda Wildlife Education Centre (UWEC). We now have 15 lions at UWEC which we have been breeding, but the lion population in the country has gone down because of human wildlife conflict. We are now going to start breeding them in the wild in Queen Elizabeth, Kidepo and Murchison Falls National parks,” Mwine submitted before the budget committee on Tuesday, January 23, 2024.

Parliament is set to consider the 2024/25 National Budget Framework Paper during the Thursday plenary sitting.

Lion population declining 

The present status of lions in Uganda is isolated and that populations exist only in three of the ten national parks; Kidepo Valley, Queen Elizabeth and Murchison Falls National Parks. 

“The lion population has experienced a steady decline due to indiscriminate killing by the local communities especially pastoralists, road accidents, habitat loss and diseases,” stated the wildlife status report of 2018. 

The report also indicated that the lion populations in Queen have become small and fragile over the years. The risk factors among others include poaching, which if not controlled, can lead to a very dramatic decline or even extinction.