KABWOYA GAME RESERVE TO BE BOOSTED WITH WILDLIFE ANIMALS

The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) will on Sunday 2^nd December 2007  start relocating 20 jackson’s hartebeest and 20 waterbucks from Murchison Falls National Park to Kabwoya Wildlife Reserve.

UWA, in conjunction with other  stake holders in safaris management, will be supported by the USAID under an ongoing conservation project-PRIME/West which seeks to reduce threats to biodiversity in the endangered Albertine Rift eco-region.

“For the first time in over 45 years, the hartebeests and waterbucks will roam the savannah plains of Kabwoya Wildlife Reserve,” a statement from the US embassy in Kampala stated.

According to the statement, 100,000 hectares of biological significance would be improved and over 400 people trained in conservation.

“The interventions support endangered species, tropical ecosystems along with communities and disenfranchised populations. With wildlife-based tourism, communities benefit from revenue sharing, UWA benefits from the revenue for the protected area system and humanity benefits from the conservation of endangered species and habitat.”

The Kabwoya-Kaiso Wildlife Management Area is a protected zone within the disrupted ecosystems of western Uganda. It comprises 200-square-kilometres of land between the Albertine Rift escarpment and Lake Albert.

The expanding human population in western Uganda, is increasingly threatening the integrity of the area. “Forests are being destroyed and wildlife is intensively hunted for bush meat.

These threats are acute in the central part of the rift along the areas adjacent to Lake Albert,” the statement noted.