As the rest of the world celebrated the Christmas festive season, Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) rangers in Mt. Elgon National Park had a rather exciting celebration of their own. In a meeting held on 13th December 2009, it was agreed between UWA’s Mt. Elgon National Park and Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) Mt. Elgon National park that there was need to strengthen security within the park during Christmas and the New Year festivities. This meeting was held at Suam Guest House, at the Kenyan side of the park together with KWS staff.

It was thus decided that joint coordinated patrols were required. On the 16th, two groups of rangers were deployed to patrol areas on both sides of the international border. It was established that poachers had constructed makeshift huts and encroachers had joined them to establish several patches of Irish potato gardens on the Kenyan side. Things were not any better on the Ugandan side as the rangers encountered poachers, six in number.

Christmas has been known as a season where poaching was likely to increase as families prepared to enjoy wild meat at the expense of wildlife but this year, things have been different because of the level of preparedness not only on transboundary areas, but throughout Uganda’s wildlife protected areas. We are therefore happy to say that despite the excitement in Mt. Elgon, it was generally a joyful and peaceful season throughout our parks and the efforts of the UWA staff to keep the conservation fire burning is commendable.

Many more collaborative activities are coming and it is hopped that at the end of it all, poaching and encroachment within the two protected areas shall be tremendously reduced. The joint effort of KWS and UWA has over the years resulted in successful conservation efforts that have seen both protected areas improving gradually in the state of conservation. More effort shall be put in to ensure that achievements so far are built upon for the betterment of Uganda’s wildlife heritage.

Moses Chelibei Kamuron
Ag Public Relations Manager UWA