HUMAN-ANIMAL CONFLICT IN MURCHISION FALLS NATIONAL PARK

People leaving near national parks in Uganda like Murchison Falls National Park has been affected the animals in the park. People, who had been displaced during the reign of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) war, have come back and have settled in the park without talking to the Uganda Wildlife Authority which has caused a number of human-wildlife conflicts.

The parks have no fences separating it from the villages because they are too wide covering like six districts which make it very expensive to fence it.

People in Bulisa District grow crops for both commercial and subsistence but their crops are always attacked by animals like baboons and elephants. When the cocks cross to the park looking for insects, they are attacked by the baboons and the elephants cross to the gardens to destroy crops like cassava and maize leaves and the people are not compensated.

The farmers have been finding to difficult to graze their cattle and goats because they are attacked by leopards and lions from the park. Those fishing in the Albert Nile have also been attacked by the crocodiles. They tear the nets yet fishing nets are very expensive to buy .the hippos hit the small boats and kill fishermen.

The people of UWA want to be compensated because they need to earn their living.

Uganda Wildlife Authority said 25 elephants have been killed in Murchison Falls National Park 2011 by poachers, skin them and take their meat and tusks. The tusks are used for making ivory, medicinal and to get money from the trunks.

 There has been an increased worry about the poaching of the elephants that are killed from the park instead of outside where they destroy people’s crops. The police have therefore worked together with the district intelligence official in the area to arrest poachers so that they can stop human-wildlife conflict.

According to the current records, 10 poachers have been arrested and taken to the court this year.

Methods like digging ditches have been set up to stop the elephants from moving to the nearby areas to eat the crops. The 20% of the revenue got from the park will be used to dig the ditches and to invest in community livelihood projects so that people can appreciate conservation.

Ms Lillian Nsubuga said Latoro village is very close to the park so there is no measure that can help them because UWA has no power outside the management of parks.

She said the laws on poachers have to be strengthened to convicting the person and those that that are caught with bush meat to be put in prison for a year or pay 1m.

GORILLA TRACKING NEWS