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Wild animals including elephants tend to invade people's gardens near the national park and destroy them. This one reason why Government shares revenue with National park surrounding communities
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Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) has disbursed Sh1.5b to benefit 13 districts as part of the 20% gate collections given back to the communities for conservation.
The districts that neighbour Queen Elizabeth and the Rwenzori Mountains National Park include Kasese, Kamwenge, Kabarole, Bunyangabu, Ntoroko, Rubirizi, Mitooma, Rukungiri, Kanungu, Ibanda, Kyenjojo, Kitagwenda, and Bundibugyo.
Of the recipients, Kasese received the lion share of sh596 m since it neighbours both parks. Others are Rubirizi (sh234 m), Rukungiri (sh146 m), Kanungu (sh130 m). Kitagwenda sh262m and Ibanda sh3.7m. Others are Bunyangabu sh13m, Ntoroko sh1.8m, ,Kabarole sh4.2m, among others.
At the handover ceremony held at Kalya Courts in Fort Portal Tourism City, UWA Director of Finance and Administration Jimmy Mugisa highlighted the need for communities to protect wildlife.
"The Uganda Wildlife Act 2000 requires UWA to disburse some of the money from the national parks to front-line communities for their contribution to wildlife conservation.
Elephants at Queen Elizabeth National Park
It stipulates that the UWA board shall pay 20 percent of the park entry fees collected from wildlife-protected areas to the local government of the area surrounding the wildlife-protected area from which the fees were collected," Mugisa explained.
Pontious Ezuma, the Queen Elizabeth Chief Warden, said that the revenue sharing programme is meant to strengthen partnerships between local communities, local government, and the management of wildlife areas, leading to sustainable management of wildlife resources in protected areas.
He expressed gratitude for the increase in tourists in the last few months, even when they could not hit the target, like in the past years before the COVID-19 pandemic, but anticipates more revenue as the global world's economy settles.
Warning
Moses Nabenda, the Fort Portal Chief Magistrate, appealed to district leaders to ensure the money benefits the communities neighboring the wildlife-protected areas since its conditional grant to avoid interfering with the law.
"Diverting public funds that are conditional extracts abuse of office and diversion of funds under Anti-Corruption Act sections 20 and 21 and 11, and so do not convert, transfer, or dispose of public funds for purposes unrelated to those for which the resources were intended for your own benefit or that of a third party, resulting in an offence," Nabenda cautioned.
Benefits
Eliphaz Muhindi, the Kasese district LCV chairperson, appreciated the revenue sharing programme, stating that from it, they have constructed classroom blocks in schools like Katwe secondary school, Katunguru primary school, and Kawocha vocational secondary school.
