conservation issues

Snare removal, Semliki ©WILDPLACESTRUST

The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) has spent a decade working hard to preserve the Toro-Semliki Wildlie Reserve.  However, despite UWA’s best efforts, the protection and restoration of the reserve is not as effective as it must be.  Cattle grazing has devastated much of the northwest portion of the reserve, creating barren ground that has become overgrown with invasive plant species that impair wildlife success.  Heavy poaching continues to threaten populations of kob, warthog, reedbuck, giant forest hog, red river hog and buffalo.  Public access to the reserve makes law enforcement very difficult and fires regularly destroy the areas along the main road that passes through the reserve connecting various villages to Lake Albert. Timber harvesting and charcoal making are destroying the riverine forest areas that are home to various primates as well as many other wildlife. 

Snared Buffalo, Semliki ©WILDPLACESTRUST

Poaching

•Poaching is reducing wildlife numbers and threatening certain species that are struggling to return from near local extinction.

•Jackson’s hartebeest became locally extinct in 1978.  Other ungulate species’ numbers are dangerously low.

•Predator and scavenger populations have been decimated (except leopard), and jackals, hyenas and some species of vulture are completely gone.

Cattle Grazing

•Cattle grazing is devastating parts of the reserve.

•Lions are vulnerable to poisoning by cattle keepers when they take cattle

•Invasive species are dominating degraded areas

Timber Poaching

•Communities are harvesting trees for firewood, charcoal production and timber.

•Neighboring communities are poor, the major contributing factor to resource abuse.

Encroachment

•Farmers are planting crops inside the reserve boundaries

OVER FISHING

•Over-fishing practices along Lake Albert shorelines are reducing fish as a food source and increasing poaching pressure in the reserve.

PUBLIC ACCESS TO THE RESERVE

•Public access to the reserve is too free, making law enforcement extremely difficult.

•Public road dissects the reserve allowing unregulated access to reserve resources

•Illegal activities are frequent along public access routes
–Wire snare setting
–Bush fires
–Grazing

•Illegal, but tolerated, footpaths allow unsupervised entrance to and exit from the reserve

•Designated cattle corridors are conduits for poaching activities