Lake Mburo—A New National Park in Africa Jonathan Kingdon
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Lake Mburo—a new national park in Africa Jonathan Kingdon The opening of a new national park in Uganda On the morning of Saturday 14 July 1984 a cloud is significant and welcome evidence of the of dust rose into the sky as lorries, landrovers and resuscitation of the country's commitment to cars made their way over a hastily laid track that conservation. The author, an FFPS Council led to a low hill overlooking Lake Mburo. School member, who has a long and active assoc- children and students, workers and businessmen, iation with Uganda, attended the ceremonial dancers, bands, politicians and scientists con- opening of Lake Mburo National Park last July. verged in a noisy cheerful crowd on this spot in He tells the story behind the achievement and south-western Uganda to celebrate a very makes a plea for international support to remarkable event— the birth of a new national enable Uganda to sustain its efforts to reverse park in one of the loveliest areas of Uganda. Few the trend towards environmental degradation. people at the ceremony and practically no one Klipspringer in Lake Mburo National Park (J.B. White). A new national park in Africa Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.203.74, on 07 Oct 2021 at 15:14:37, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605300019475 outside Uganda was likely to appreciate the scale in the late 1950s and 1960s was made possible by of this achievement. a concerted anti-tsetse campaign which involved During the first half of this century Lake Mburo spraying with DDT, massive tree-felling and bush was known to a handful of naturalists as one of clearance and the shooting of 44,000 large the premier wildlife areas in East Africa, some mammals (including the elimination of rare preferred its sculptured landscape, idyllic lake species such as the giant hog). shores and smaller scale to the grandeur of Very large areas of land that had been inacces- SerengeH Both areas were once comparable in sible were converted over a short period into range of species and animal abundance. Eland, highly desirable rangeland. Those best placed to buffalo, waterbuck, topi, sitatunga, impala, zebra, benefit from this very rapid conversion were roan antelope, reedbuck, oribi, klipspringer, lion, neighbouring cattle owners who already had the leopard, hippo, warthog, baboon were common breeding stock to fill the biological vacuum animals and sufficient remain to recover their created by the game and tsetse clearance. Popu- numbers. The varied vegetation, rolling grassy lation and political pressures in nearby Rwanda hills, rocky screes, rich acacia-wooded valleys, provided essentially agriculturally-based refugee forest galleries and swamps by the rivers and settlers. In the ensuing land-rush the boundaries lakes support a wealth of smaller animals and of Lake Mburo Game Reserve were ignored and I birds, which make every area of the Park alive remember the Chief Game Warden, Mr Ruweza, with variety, interest and colour. tearing his hair in frustration at the humiliations that his department and staff were forced to This jewelled corner of Ankole was recognised as endure. a superb wildlife area and gazetted as a game reserve at an early date. Throughout the 1940s In 1966 four million dollars of US aid were ear- and 1950s wildlife flourished and no settlement marked for the development of ranches in was permitted in the Reserve. The opening up of Ankole. Their confidence bolstered by money large areas of Ankole to ranching and settlement and machines, functionaries of the livestock and 'GorilGorillla \ Sanctuary Map to show location of Lake Mburo National Park. 8 OiyxVoll9Nol Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.203.74, on 07 Oct 2021 at 15:14:37, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605300019475 Impala in Lake Mburo National Park (J.B. White). veterinary department bluntly described the Minister of State in the Office of the President who Game Reserve as a source of competition, disease holds the portfolio of Tourism and Wildlife, and nuisance—an untidy obstacle to their plans Christopher Rwakasisi. His drive and personality for a gigantic beeflot. There was one weekend have overcome substantial opposition from local when Ankole Ranching Scheme employees vested interests, but it should be remembered mobilised their bulldozers and fencing to excise a that the initial impetus came from the District critical watering point out of the Game Reserve, Council of Mbarara who, in August of 1982, thus appropriating the water for livestock. A recommended that Lake Mburo be upgraded to demoralised Wildlife Department was helpless in national park. Their resolution was taken up by the face of this fait accompli and the wild animals Parliament in December 1982. The subsequent enclosed behind the fence provided some free relocation of illegal squatters was lengthy and sport that was well-advertised at the time. costly as they numbered several thousand people. Local criticism of this resettlement was With the advent of Idi Amin's regime the Game vociferous but the Prime Minister in opening the Reserve became a larder for the nearby barracks Park stressed that the Government had been as at Mbarara and settlement by illegal squatters humane and considerate as it could be in what became quite extensive. Furthermore one of the was inevitably a painful uprooting. richer and more influential cattle-owners in Ankole ran some 6000 head of cattle over a large part of the Reserve and it was his recent demise Why did the Councillors in Mbarara feel they that removed just one of the numerous obstacles needed a national park? In his welcoming speech faced by those who have not only re-asserted Christopher Rwakasisi voiced a vision of the legality but gone on to inaugurate the first of the future that is perhaps already perceptible in the new national parks first envisioned and planned dusty lorry-dominated ruins of Mbarara and is by far-seeing Ugandans in the days before Amin's certainly a reality in the overcrowded streets of reign of terror. Kampala. He said: 'We are now engaged in the great task of rehabilitating our economy, we are The leading light in this initiative has been the doing it with remarkable success. Give it a little A new national park in Africa 9 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.203.74, on 07 Oct 2021 at 15:14:37, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605300019475 time, our economy will be buoyant again. Our rivers, trap duikers and other animals for recrea- towns and cities will expand and grow. There will tion and sell the gold across the border. Naturally be congestion. There will be noise. Places like this these enterprises, like those at Lake Mburo, have we are trying to set aside and preserve will be of local supporters, sometimes in influential circles, premium recreational value. Our children's but there is a good chance that they may meet children will need and appreciate places of this their match in the present generation of Ugandan nature where they will, as it were, enjoy a quiet conservationists who include several ministers bliss from the pressures of big towns and cities.' and other public figures, many young educated He went on to describe plans for the second Ugandans and a solid core of indigenous scien- phase of Uganda's National Environmental and tists and academics. Needless to say, protection of Conservation Strategy, in which everything the Impenetrable has massive moral (and poten- possible will be done to stop and reverse the trend tially financial) support from the international towards degradation. He put saving forests, community, particularly informed scientists and wildlife, swamps and water catchments first, but environmentalists. he reminded his audience that the national parks once generated foreign exchange earnings It has to be recognised, however, that this second only to cotton and coffee. The economy renascent concern for the environment in and infrastructure will soon be capable of sustain- Uganda has a very fragile base both politically ing a refurbished tourist trade and Lake Mburo and financially and those who spearhead the has the advantage of being only two-and-a-half foundation of new parks and protection of old hours drive from Kampala, but it is clear that ones fight continuous battles against formidable tourists will only come in significant numbers opposition. when the soldiers return to their barracks and no All the major international conservation organ- longer punctuate the roads with their road blocks. isations would be bound, by the very principles on which they were founded, to support an Meanwhile, influential figures like Minister Impenetrable Forest National Park and the result- Rwakasisi, Professor Kayanja and many others ing funds can be predicted to dwarf the pathetic have thrown their weight behind grass-roots con- revenue presently earned by timber and pros- servation and supported a rapidly expanding net- pecting licences. work of wildlife clubs. It is an open secret in Uganda that proposals first put forward by The funding of Lake Mburo is less predictable. Uganda National Parks in 1970 to upgrade the Given a tourist trade it should be self-supportive Impenetrable or Bwindi-Kayonza Forest to in a short period but a larger political and econ- national park status have been resuscitated. This omic scene determines that. It is my personal, and forest is habitat for the last viable population of perhaps unpopular, opinion that US aid could mountain gorillas in Uganda and supports one of offset some of the adverse criticism it earned from the greatest concentrations of rare forest animals its role in the Ankole Ranching Scheme by giving and plants in Africa.