May 2001 Budongo Forest Project Volume 4, Number 1 Page 1 Volume 4, Number 1 May 2001 Editorial by Vernon Reynolds Welcome to another in our BFP Newsletter series. assistant Alfred report In this issue we look back to the “good old days” (or good progress with finding were they bad?) with a contribution from Bob Plumptre out where these chimps (Andy’s father) on the pre-Amin days. Another old- range, and whether they return timer, Patrick Boston, returned to Budongo recently to the main forest block. and writes about his new project on butterflies. And We had some preliminary discus- we have some further contributions from recent visi- sions in September 2000 with Kinyara Sugar Works about tors to Budongo. I await articles from our Ugandan how to set up a buffer zone between the ever expanding students – please write – what do you think of Sonso sugar fields and the forest, to protect the wildlife from snares camp? Tell us about your projects and experiences. and traps, and to protect the sugar crop itself. Geresomu has We also discussed joined Zephyr at with the local people Nyabyeya For- and with Frank estry College, both Turyatunga of EPED are training for the how to replant a cor- Forestry ridor of trees along Technician’s Cer- the Kasokwa river, to tificate. Thanks to re-join the Kasokwa the generosity of forest reserve to the Cleveland Zoologi- main Budongo block. cal Society, we are Both these are tricky able to continue our issues and will cost staff development money, and we’re a programme and we long way from achiev- are very proud of ing them but at least this. Photo: J. Wallis the ideas are now tak- Our snare re- ing shape. moval programme The Staff of the Budongo Forest Project. Vernon displays the plaque Following the has re-started and awarded from the American Society of Primatologists Norad conference in we hope this will September 1999 we benefit our chimps eventually - but they continue to had a second one in September 2000, with a greater focus on suffer. Last September, Zefa, now a fine young adult local issues – protection of the forest and its wildlife, in- male, appeared after a week’s absence with a snare come generation, tree planting, ecotourism and crop-raid- around all the fingers of his right hand. We discussed ing. We enjoyed a half-day visit to the impressive visitors’ whether to intervene (Wayne Boardman was willing to centre at Busingiro (Budongo Forest Ecotourism Project). try and dart him to remove the snare) but as he was The conference was followed by a Training Course in March feeding well and the hand did not appear to be infected, 2001, the agenda for which was determined by the local we decided against. The danger would be that he might community. Villages in Budongo sub-county sent represen- climb after being darted and fall and injure himself. tatives for a week’s training (see Latest News box These snares are an awful problem. on page 3). Many thanks to DFID for funding these events, We’ve extended our chimp studies to Busingiro and and to all at Nyabyeya Forestry College for being such Kasokwa. At Busingiro the chimps remain afraid of excellent hosts. humans – we think this is a result of the continued BFP is now 10 years old! We had our 10th anniversary illegal pit-sawing there which happens at night. At party in September 2000 and enjoyed ourselves. It was nice Kasokwa (near Masindi) Richard Kyamanywa and his to see former staff members there – Joy and Francis, Dissan and Priscilla – who now live and work at Kinyara. Last but not least I must mention the awards we re- ceived in our 10th year – the President’s Award from the American Society of Primatologists which Janette Wallis presented at the September party, and the Chairman’s Award from the National Geographic Society which was presented in Washington in November 2000. And there was another nice surprise – a plaque from the Project’s Steering Com- mittee. It’s fine and gratifying that our efforts are appreci- ated both locally and internationally. Thanks to you all. BFP is forging its own destiny. We are not following any known pattern. We try in our own small way to do high quality research with a human face – to always remember the hopes and ambitions of our staff as well as those of our students, and to remember also that we Photo: J. Wallis don’t exist as an “ivory tower” in the midst of poverty, but Sonso chimpanzee, Kalema, and her newborn that we are part of the local scene, we have a duty to assist daughter Kumi. Kumi means “ten” in Kiswahili; the the good people living nearby in any way we can. Some of infant was named to commemorate the Budongo Budongo Forest Project Forest Project’s Tenth Anniversary. our recent initiatives are moving closer to this objective. Page 2 Budongo Forest Project Volume 4, Number 1 May 2001 Budongo Before Amin by Bob Plumptre I was first posted to Uganda in January River, topping them and hand winching them bought by the Patel family who still own it. 1957, as a young and very raw forest officer into place before putting on the decking. The They installed a pressure treatment plant with no tropical experience other than spend- winch plus cable was left in the forest over- and then a particle board mill to use sawmill ing the first six years of my life in India. night and by the morning the cable had lost residues. Preservation made it possible to Within two weeks, equipped with a new several strands. Snaring animals in the forest use most non-durable species, as almost all Land Rover, I was sent up the road to is not new. of these were easy to treat, and the particle Budongo to relieve Arnold Beaton, for 5 board mill made it possible to use slabs and months, as District Forest Officer at offcuts, which formerly had been sold very Busingiro; he was going on leave. The house cheaply as firewood, to make a moderately was set in a beautiful garden on a hill facing valuable product. It was used in making par- West; it looked over forest and savanna, with tition walls, ceilings and in furniture. Late in a strip of Lake Albert visible at the foot of the ‘60s, they installed a mosaic parquetry the 8,000ft high Congo mountains some 30- manufacturing machine to convert muhimbi 40 miles away. The District Forest Office flooring strip into finished parquetry squares was in the garden, 10 yards from the house, and parquet blocks for traditional herring so commuting to work was not an insur- boned parquet floors. By 1970, the only mountable problem. After the 5 months I major equipment lacking for good utilisation was posted to Fort Portal for two years and of muhimbi at Budongo was a timber drying then back to Busingiro for a year and a half, kiln to dry the timber fully to 8-12% mois- this time as Assistant Principal of the For- ture content before it was made into the fin- est School at Nyabyeya but working with ished parquetry product. students on practical work in Budongo. The Siiba block and most of the Biiso From then on I was based in other parts of block of the forest had been completely felled Uganda; from 1963 until 1971 I was Forest by 1957. In 1968, after a competitive ten- Utilisation Officer at Nakawa Forest Sta- der, a concession was given to Sikh Saw- tion, Kampala, dealing with forest products mills (SSM), to construct a new sawmill in research and forest industry development Bob Plumptre - in the early years Hoima and start a second felling in the Siiba throughout the country; this job took me on block, some 30-40 years after it had origi- regular visits to Budongo. The Ecologist in the ‘50s and early’60s nally been felled. The conditions of the SSM The forest had been explored and many was Colyear Dawkins who had established licence required a large number of species to species identified as early as 1904 by Dawe numerous research plots; he usually in- be cut and modern sawmill equipment and and then by various foresters including spected them at the double which left me advanced layout to be used; this included a Eggeling and Dale. By 1957 “The Indigenous well behind, mentally and physically; these log turner (to make it easier to use defective Trees of the Uganda Protectorate” had al- plots included trials of various arboricide logs and get better quality timber from good ready been written and working plans were treatments to kill “weed species,” i.e., those logs) and a pressure preservation plant; the in force. Budongo was a Central Govern- which could not be felled and sawn economi- ratio between forest fees tendered for ma- ment Forest. In 1965, Martin Rukuba be- cally at that time and which were preventing hogany and the lowest priced timber came head of the Central Government For- the regeneration and growth of “desirable (muhimbi) was 35:1, indicating the wide dif- est Department, taking over from George species” (the four mahogany species, muvule ference in sale value between species. There Webster. The DFO was in direct charge of (Milicia excelsa) and a number of other spe- was plenty of mahogany but other species all Central Government Forest and acted as cies). Muhimbi (Cynometra alexandri) was were also used extensively.