This is the third part of the three-part rhino series.
Read Parts 1 and 2 of the series to explore how Uganda lost its rhinos, how Ziwa rhino sanctuary has produced 48 rhinos from a group of six pioneers
Part 3
The mountain gorillas in south-western Uganda have turned into a big money spinner and inspirer. One of the latest groups to get lessons on gorilla ecotourism has been a visiting group from Ajai Wildlife Reserve in Madi Okollo, West Nile. The group is seeking to benefit from the endangered southern rhinos without hurting them. What were their experiences as well as prospects? Gerald Tenywa found out and now writes
Madi Okollo is a hard place to love. This is a district in West Nile which was gifted with the rarest northern white rhinos that were butchered into extinction in the mid-1980s. In the dry season, the heat swelters, making it undesirable to stay in Madi Okollo. This is not entirely blamed on Madi Okollo because of the global crises such as the poaching pressure on endangered species and climate change.
But then there are problems stemming from the hands of the local people. The landscape is literally burning as the youth fell trees in hundreds to make charcoal. There are also wild bush fires set by the local people to stimulate fresh pastures to grow at the return of the rainy season.
As the local people get caught in the mix of this malaise that has spared no country, the leadership of Madi Okollo is not sitting back. Madi Okollo has moved as far as Bwindi Impenetrable National Park to achieve prosperity without hurting the endangered species. The local people around Bwindi have built enterprises around gorilla ecotourism. This is something which can be replicated by the communities around the rhinos in Madi Okollo.
Ecotourism is defined as responsible travel to untouched areas that contributes to the conservation of the environment and rewards the local people staying in its neighbourhood.
Madi Okollo’s experience
The local people around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park gave land to the park but got more than what they bargained for, according to Isaac Sande, a resident of Ogoko village, Madi Okollo. “They got a school and lodge, which gives them money to pay school fees, bought a milling machine, and their children get absorbed as guides in the park,” says Sande.
This creates an impression that Ajai Wildlife Reserve is a gold mine waiting to be tapped by the local people and the district as well as their partners.
“We were excited with what we saw in Bwindi,” says Ismail Drabe, the Chairperson for Madi Okollo. “The neighbours of Bwindi love mountain gorillas and have taken responsibility to protect the park.”
He added, “The enterprises have made them economically viable; the local people are getting better fortunes from the park. We did not see poor people in the places we visited.”
He says the work is cut out for the people of Madi Okollo and the surrounding districts. “As the rhinos come, we should not look at them as bush meat,” he says. “We should use them as a stepping stone to get better lives.”
He added, “We want to offer what we can do best to the tourists. The budget for the district on tourism is not much, but we work outside the box to get things moving. We are mobilising the local people and the private sector to invest in tourism to create employment.”
Drabe led the team that visited Bwindi with stopovers at Murchison Falls, Ziwa Rhino and Wildlife Sanctuary, Lake Mburo National Park and Kibale National Park. This included some of the local communities in the neighbourhood of Ajai as well as the technical staff of the district, including the environment and tourism officers.
Sweet dreams; hard work pays
As some of the rhinos move from Ziwa Rhino and Wildlife Ranch, the opportunity for Madi Okollo to escape from poverty to prosperity is a tangible reality.
However, for the conservation of rhinos and the spinoffs such as ecotourism to thrive, land that is suitable to accommodate these kinds of ventures is needed.
So, what does ecotourism look like back home in Ajai Wildlife Reserve and its neighbourhood?
If anywhere was made for ecotourism, it should be Madi Okollo, according to Night Zahara, the tourism officer for Madi Okollo. In addition to the white rhinos, Madi Okollo is bordered to the east by the River Nile. It is blessed with an expansive swampland and rivers feeding the Nile.
There was also King Ajai’s hunting grounds, where he took Theodore Roosevelt, former US President, on a hunting expedition. Ajai is also sleeping in a serene burial ground outside the wildlife reserve. This is part of the planned itinerary that will take visitors on a wildlife-rich and culturally gifted landscape.
“We have a rich culture, which recognises rhinos as a heritage,” says Zahara, adding that they have many things that are shaping their escape to prosperity. “We border two countries, DR Congo and South Sudan; we are expecting tourists from there and beyond to visit us.”
On their part, UWA’s Wilson Katamigwa, who is Ajai’s chief warden, says they have 166 square kilometres under the Ajai Wildlife Reserve and have secured 58 square kilometres with an electric fence.
This will house the returning rhinos, according to Katamigwa. The remaining part of the park also has many species of wildlife, including antelopes and buffaloes, which have been moved there ahead of the rhinos.
According to Katamigwa, Ajai Wildlife Reserve, which was depleted of wild animals, has been restored. “The habitat has been manipulated to make it suitable for the grazing rhinos.”
In addition, the water supply, which will feed the rhinos and the local population with water, is fast turning Ajai into an “oasis”.
This has also benefitted some of the local people directly through employment. “We have services from the local community, such as construction of the outposts for the rangers, enclosure (boma) for the rhinos, habitat manipulation and drilling of water,” says Katamigwa.
He also pointed out that part of Ajai Wildlife Reserve had suffered encroachment in the decades when UWA was thin on the ground. “It was partly our fault that encroachers occupied Ajai,” he says, adding that this is why they agreed to compensate the occupants.
The land has been secured from the encroachers except for one occupant who has resisted, and UWA is still engaging him, according to Katamigwa. He also pointed out that they are documenting all the tourism opportunities within and outside the park for development.
“The land is a key factor in the survival of the rhinos,” he says. “The rhinos now have bigger playing grounds than in the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary. This is also their natural habitat.”
But troublesome weeds, which Katamigwa termed invasive weeds, are causing them sleepless nights. This is because they are eating, stifling the growth of grass, which is palatable to the white rhinos.
“There are many aggressive species of plants that are eating Ajai,” says Katamigwa, adding that places that used to be plain savannah have become thickets, and this threatens to displace wild animals. “That is why we are undertaking habitat manipulation.”
In his view, climate change is a global problem that affects people and wildlife. “We have had experiences where people cultivate and rain disappears,” says Katamigwa, adding that climate change has also not spared conservation.
Bwindi’s ecotourism is showcasing is that tourism and improved livelihood thrive on conservation. As the world warms up, the ecological systems such as forests are important in terms of shielding the communities against droughts and floods that come with climate change. In addition, ecotourism supports livelihoods that are resilient in the changing climate.
This means that the reintroduction of rhinos in Ajai is going to enhance conservation and also lead to multiple benefits, including tourism as well as water, which is becoming scarce. Ajai is not only being set aside for rhinos but also for the ecological systems, including swamps and rivers that feed the Nile with water.
Expert opinion
Dr. Wilber Ahebwa, a senior lecturer at Makerere University, observes that conservation calls for strong community support. This is sometimes constrained once the costs of conservation are bigger than the benefits and local livelihood. It could also lead to negative attitudes and illegal resource use.
He highlights the need to improve revenue sharing and promote conservation-linked livelihood strategies to promote public acceptance and participation.
In Madi Okollo, bold steps are being taken to initiate ecotourism. This is because the communities around Ajai are convinced that rhinos can be their springboard to a brighter future. “We have started forming a group in Ogoko for mobilising support to develop ecotourism in a manner similar to what we saw in Bwindi,” says Sande.
Can Sande and his colleagues do better than what their counterparts around Bwindi have done? It is a rhetoric question whose answer will be told with time.
