Uganda needs local, not foreign teams to monitor its resources
Sep 11, 2009
THE United Nations declared 2009 as the Year of the Gorilla to create awareness about this very close cousin of man. Uganda has half the population of mountain gorillas worldwide and they are a key tourism attraction.
By Moses Mapesa
THE United Nations declared 2009 as the Year of the Gorilla to create awareness about this very close cousin of man. Uganda has half the population of mountain gorillas worldwide and they are a key tourism attraction.
However, the gorillas are critically endangered with half the global population found in Bwindi National Park in Uganda and the other half shared between Uganda in Mgahinga, Rwanda in Volcanoes and DR Congo in Virunga.
The mountain gorilla is the only endangered species whose population is growing at a healthy rate globally due to the conservation efforts of the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA). Because of the conservation and economic importance of gorillas to the Ugandan economy, UWA named its new headquarter building on Plot 7 Kiira Road, the Gorilla Nest.
As part of the year of the gorilla awareness campaign, UWA has lined up a series of events, including gorilla street bash, gorilla dinner, gorilla concert, gorilla marathon and relay, friend-a-gorilla internet facebook and naming gorilla twins.
The public and the international community has been invited to all these events. Details can be found at UWA headquarters and UWA website, www.wildlifeuganda.or.ug or www.uwa.or.ug.
My intention was to write a little more about gorilla conservation and tourism. I am the chairman of the Transboundary Forum (Core Secretariat) for collaboration between Uganda, Rwanda and DR Congo for the management of the gorilla habitat and also chairman of the UNEP/UNESCO-sponsored Great Apes Survival Programme that brings together 23 range states (23 countries) with gorilla, chimpanzee, bonobo (pygmy chimpanzee) and orang-outang.
But while writing the first two paragraphs above during a lunch break at the Leadership for Conservation Africa (LCA) meeting in Chobe National Park, Botswana; a colleague drew my attention to an online article on oil in The New Vision of August 28, and I could not help commenting.
Firstly, I thank the author for pointing out the need to benefit from the oil without compromising on environmental management standards and benefits to our Ugandan people. I agree with him that we need monitoring teams with real “teethâ€.
And his examples of Nigeria and Ken Saro Wiwa are spot on. But that is the far we go together. If I understood him correctly, he suggests that monitoring teams with real “teeth’ can only be “externalâ€, wow!! When shall we grow our own “teeth†and use them properly?
Whilst there are some really bad examples like Nigeria, there are also good ones — Libya, Gabon and Norway — that have done very well with both the oil revenues and environmental management. Indeed, our Ugandan experts have been to these countries to learn from their success and mistakes.
Now this “external†thing!! This is largely why most of Africa remains backward, even with all the endowment of natural resources that we boast of. The Botswana minister for environment made this point very clear in the LCA meeting in Chobe.
The Asian and Latin American countries have developed and addressed their developmental and environmental issues out of their national initiatives, efforts and manpower.
Even Libya and South Africa have developed through national efforts, not because of external support. Actually they were isolated by the external powers to their advantage.
We need to build our own capacity at individual and institutional level and be more nationalistic and patriotic. We should collectively support our institutions, build confidence and trust and provide effective feedback and checks rather than look elsewhere or fight each other. Of course, we can argue and debate. If we are worried of the external companies, how can we trust the external monitoring agents?
We have witnessed external interventions fail with even worse results, there are many examples (political, economic, military and environmental) in Africa and Asia. Nigeria has a lot of externally supported oil monitoring groups.
What we need is self-determination and resistance to all forms of bad governance. It is governance that we must address and collectively too.
The reason the NRM went to the bush was to change the governance systems and now that we have attained some stability and found more resources in form of oil, all Ugandans have a duty to uphold good governance principals and not look elsewhere. I believe if we approach the issues objectively, dialogue meaningfully, cooperate and support each other, we shall attain the desired results.
Countries like the US, Germany, Japan, China and close here Rwanda, re-built their economies after wars and instituted governance systems that allowed economic growth and environmental safeguards.
We in Uganda should be able to do the same with our wildlife, forests, fisheries, water and now with our new found oil. Of course we should be aware of corruption, tribalism, greed and exploitation.
The approach should be to address these issues objectively but not pretend that they do not exist or simply look for help elsewhere. We have the Government institutions (NEMA, PEPD, NFA, UWA, WD, etc) and civil society organisations like NAPE, Wildlife Clubs, Uganda Wildlife Society as well as International NGOs like WWF, IUCN, WCS, CARE and the media.
These institutions must work together, stop mutual suspicion and contribute collectively to the socio-economic development and environmental management for the common good of Ugandans.
Let us not behave like the Jews in Exodus who told their leader, Moses, that they were better off as slaves in Egypt and who time and again would worship idols (because of fear, mistrust, suspicion and selfishness) when the Lord was in their midst.
The writer is the executive director of the Uganda Wildlife Authority
THE United Nations declared 2009 as the Year of the Gorilla to create awareness about this very close cousin of man. Uganda has half the population of mountain gorillas worldwide and they are a key tourism attraction.
However, the gorillas are critically endangered with half the global population found in Bwindi National Park in Uganda and the other half shared between Uganda in Mgahinga, Rwanda in Volcanoes and DR Congo in Virunga.
The mountain gorilla is the only endangered species whose population is growing at a healthy rate globally due to the conservation efforts of the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA). Because of the conservation and economic importance of gorillas to the Ugandan economy, UWA named its new headquarter building on Plot 7 Kiira Road, the Gorilla Nest.
As part of the year of the gorilla awareness campaign, UWA has lined up a series of events, including gorilla street bash, gorilla dinner, gorilla concert, gorilla marathon and relay, friend-a-gorilla internet facebook and naming gorilla twins.
The public and the international community has been invited to all these events. Details can be found at UWA headquarters and UWA website, www.wildlifeuganda.or.ug or www.uwa.or.ug.
My intention was to write a little more about gorilla conservation and tourism. I am the chairman of the Transboundary Forum (Core Secretariat) for collaboration between Uganda, Rwanda and DR Congo for the management of the gorilla habitat and also chairman of the UNEP/UNESCO-sponsored Great Apes Survival Programme that brings together 23 range states (23 countries) with gorilla, chimpanzee, bonobo (pygmy chimpanzee) and orang-outang.
But while writing the first two paragraphs above during a lunch break at the Leadership for Conservation Africa (LCA) meeting in Chobe National Park, Botswana; a colleague drew my attention to an online article on oil in The New Vision of August 28, and I could not help commenting.
Firstly, I thank the author for pointing out the need to benefit from the oil without compromising on environmental management standards and benefits to our Ugandan people. I agree with him that we need monitoring teams with real “teethâ€.
And his examples of Nigeria and Ken Saro Wiwa are spot on. But that is the far we go together. If I understood him correctly, he suggests that monitoring teams with real “teeth’ can only be “externalâ€, wow!! When shall we grow our own “teeth†and use them properly?
Whilst there are some really bad examples like Nigeria, there are also good ones — Libya, Gabon and Norway — that have done very well with both the oil revenues and environmental management. Indeed, our Ugandan experts have been to these countries to learn from their success and mistakes.
Now this “external†thing!! This is largely why most of Africa remains backward, even with all the endowment of natural resources that we boast of. The Botswana minister for environment made this point very clear in the LCA meeting in Chobe.
The Asian and Latin American countries have developed and addressed their developmental and environmental issues out of their national initiatives, efforts and manpower.
Even Libya and South Africa have developed through national efforts, not because of external support. Actually they were isolated by the external powers to their advantage.
We need to build our own capacity at individual and institutional level and be more nationalistic and patriotic. We should collectively support our institutions, build confidence and trust and provide effective feedback and checks rather than look elsewhere or fight each other. Of course, we can argue and debate. If we are worried of the external companies, how can we trust the external monitoring agents?
We have witnessed external interventions fail with even worse results, there are many examples (political, economic, military and environmental) in Africa and Asia. Nigeria has a lot of externally supported oil monitoring groups.
What we need is self-determination and resistance to all forms of bad governance. It is governance that we must address and collectively too.
The reason the NRM went to the bush was to change the governance systems and now that we have attained some stability and found more resources in form of oil, all Ugandans have a duty to uphold good governance principals and not look elsewhere. I believe if we approach the issues objectively, dialogue meaningfully, cooperate and support each other, we shall attain the desired results.
Countries like the US, Germany, Japan, China and close here Rwanda, re-built their economies after wars and instituted governance systems that allowed economic growth and environmental safeguards.
We in Uganda should be able to do the same with our wildlife, forests, fisheries, water and now with our new found oil. Of course we should be aware of corruption, tribalism, greed and exploitation.
The approach should be to address these issues objectively but not pretend that they do not exist or simply look for help elsewhere. We have the Government institutions (NEMA, PEPD, NFA, UWA, WD, etc) and civil society organisations like NAPE, Wildlife Clubs, Uganda Wildlife Society as well as International NGOs like WWF, IUCN, WCS, CARE and the media.
These institutions must work together, stop mutual suspicion and contribute collectively to the socio-economic development and environmental management for the common good of Ugandans.
Let us not behave like the Jews in Exodus who told their leader, Moses, that they were better off as slaves in Egypt and who time and again would worship idols (because of fear, mistrust, suspicion and selfishness) when the Lord was in their midst.
The writer is the executive director of the Uganda Wildlife Authority