Conservation Gains Will Only Come through Partnerships
Meeting of the Community Based Organization that runs the Kibale Mobile Health Clinic
Colin Chapman
Conserving nature requires the involvement of many players, each having different goals, thus advances can only be made through partnerships. Here we have formed a very successful partnership between the provision of health care and conservation. This involves partnerships between the Uganda Wildlife Authority, the Ministry of Health, local government, Makerere University, Wilson Center, George Washington University, McGill University, Wildlife Conservation Society, and international donors.
Colin Chapman has worked in Uganda for 32+ years, trained 58 advanced degree students (many are now in position of authority in Uganda), worked with the Uganda Wildlife Authority since its inception, and is well respected by the local community.
Forming meaningful partnerships, where the goals of all partners can be met, is the only way to produce meaningful conservation advances.
Bushmeat Hunting and Resource Extraction are a Constant Threat to Biodiversity
Rangers arresting a poacher
Colin Chapman
The bushmeat trade is a large industry that is decimating many wildlife populations, even those in protected areas. It is estimated that up to 4 million tonnes of bushmeat are extracted each year from Central Africa alone ( the weight of ~5.7 million cattle). For the people’s perspective the resources from parks allow them to feed their families and raise money to send children to school.
We have been greatly aided by the Uganda Wildlife Authority that protects the part, monitors illegal encroachment and engages in revenue sharing and outreach to help local people. The mission statement of the Uganda Wildlife Authority is to “To conserve, economically develop and sustainably manage the wildlife and protected areas of Uganda in partnership with neighboring communities and other stakeholders for the benefit of the people of Uganda and the global community.”
Through the hard work of a Ugandan Wildlife Authority, we have been able to analyze data on the poaching level and understand the economic pressures causing increased activities and which conservation actions are effective at decreasing these activities. We have learned that our joint efforts have led to forest recovery the growth of wildlife populations in the park
Health Care is a Pressing Need That Can be Affordably Provided to Many Around Parks
In the case of tropical health, most suffering is NOT caused by a lack of effective drugs or technology, rather it is due to the simple but critical lack of accessibility to health knowledge and services. In Uganda alone, 30% of all deaths among children between the ages of 2 and 4 are caused by malaria, a disease that could be easily treated or prevented, and 26% of children under the age of 5 are malnourished. These trends are most severe in remote regions where health services and education are extremely limited. Remote areas are also often home to protected areas for wildlife. Through local clinics or mobile clinics, it is possible to provide critical health services to many people at a small cost per individual. The number of people receiving benefits are many times greater than other types of revenue sharing, such as ecotourism.
The Uganda Wildlife Authority, manage national parks, and they have enabled our outreach by providing a ranger to talk to the communities whenever the mobile clinic is in actions. They have also provided the driver. The Ministry of Health has provided us up to 3 local nurses to accompany the mobile clinic. Furthermore, the Ministry provides many drugs for free, including medicine for HIV, deworming, and vaccinations. The vaccinations will be particularly important this coming year to beat back COVID.
Through the hard work of a Ugandan student, we demonstrated that by providing health care through our mobile clinic, we can improve how the local people perceive the park - improving parks-people relationships. Long-term monitoring of wildlife populations show that this corresponds to increases in wildlife populations.
Health Care is a Pressing Need That Can be Affordably Provided to Many Around Parks
Bushmeat Hunting and Resource Extraction are a Constant Threat to Biodiversity
Conservation Gains Will Only Come through Partnerships
Education, awareness, and traditional knowledge documentation
Local Community children's education
Karim Omar
Local Community children's awarness
Karim Omar
Training Stakeholders
Karim Omar
Training Stakeholders 2
Karim Omar
Education for children's
Karim Omar
Over the past 10 years, we have focused on assessing the conservation status of endemic species and their rehabilitation in the wild. We have made a great effort to preserve it and plan for its sustainability. The most important thing that my team and I reached is that the surrounding community, users of resources, researchers, and decision-makers, whether in the site or in the government away from the place, the private sector, and students even the public can destroy everything we built during the previous years as a result of their ignorance of what we work and its importance to us and them. Dissemination of information is an external protection shield to ensure the sustainability of activities on the site. Continuous training and awareness activities should be in the target area and throughout the country in order to avoid destruction due to ignorance. Also, not documenting the traditional knowledge inherited by the local community is extremely dangerous and its loss is a waste of wealth that will cost the state and the world huge sums to discover again.
Education, awareness, and documentation, could reduce the current and future pressures and reduce the impact and the cost of recovery.
The most important factor for the success of training and awareness programs is the appropriate choice of the recipient, who preferably has contact, whether from close or from afar, with the natural resource.
Involving the community in planning and implementing conservation programs and agreeing on the sustainability and conservation of the natural resource consolidates the principle of partnership and trust and facilitates the process of documenting their knowledge.
Share with the community all your next steps and challenges and hear from them their opinions and suggestions, even if they are simple from your point of view.
Teach children in the region to understand the next generation.
Follow-up and engagement of trainees after training and awareness is very useful and works to establish and implant information within them.
Educate stakeholders about the importance of your role for their future and share the decision with them.
Involvement of Local Community in conservation Planning
Community Involvement
Karim Omar
Community Involvement 2
Karim Omar
Community Involvement 3
Karim Omar
The local communities that are located inside Protected Area suffer from some restrictions on the use of natural resources, which they believe are their property and right, and that they are the people of the place before the establishment of the PA. Usually, restrictions on the use of natural resources are for the purpose of protection and reducing pressures, which may affect the livelihood of some members of the local community, which they consider a process of denial of their rights. The local community owns cultural wealth that has been passed down from generation to generation on the optimal use of resources, their protection, and their propagation in simple ways. Involving that community in planning processes to protect natural resources will remove many of the penalties, whether for the management of the PA or for the community itself. Traditional knowledge is a hidden treasure that can be used to improve the state of natural resources and enhance the local community's sense of ownership and importance in protecting its resources, which will support the sustainability process and reduce disturbances
Those in charge of the selection process should map the community’s priorities in this area and points of contention, and identify influential community leaders, heard and loved by their community.
Several initial meetings should be held with community leaders, discussing them and asking for their support to mobilize community participation.
We should go to them in their areas and hold community assembly meetings to elect local representatives to coordinate conservation program activities
We learned that the local community and its traditional knowledge is a scientific wealth that should never be wasted.
The process of selecting representatives of the local community should be considered carefully, taking into account the conflict between tribes and avoiding the involvement of two dissenting parties.
Alternative opportunities must be provided when the community is prevented from some of its activities for the purpose of conservation
They should be made aware that they have the power to decide and allow communities to prioritize and select quick-impact projects to strengthen support and stimulate local participation.
