Top Chimpanzee Conservationist Advises Uganda On How To Eliminate Human, Wildlife Conflicts

BY SAMUELNABWIISO

World renown Chimpanzee conservationist Dr. Jane Goodall has asked the government of Uganda through its conservation agencies to ensure that laws concerning conservation are strengthened and well implemented to reduce incidences of human to wildlife conflicts.

Jane Goodall, who was talking to the Media in Wakiso, noted that many habitants for the wildlife species have been encroached on  mainly for agriculture, charcoal burning  and timber harvesting which has forced many wild animals to migrate  into people homes and farms resulting into the unending conflicts.

Dr.jane goodall 

“The government need to  strengthen the implementation of conservation  laws that are in place. This will  promote conservation  for the future and also promote the development of tourism since Uganda is gifted with thousands of wildlife species,” said Goodall.

For the general public to embrace conservation,  Dr. Jane Goodall advised the conservation agencies to work with various stakeholders such as the Ministry of Education to ensure that conservation education is added to the national curriculum.

“You need to have a generation that will save the country’s nature. It is why it’s vital to start training the younger people especially those in primary and at secondary school level to embrace conservation,” she noted.

Dr. Goodall is celebrated for her ground-breaking research and publications on wild chimpanzees in Gombe, Tanzania, and as the first to introduce the observations that chimpanzees have distinct personalities and behaviors, like those of humans, into the scientific world.

Goodall  is in Uganda  to mark the 27 years  since she started  working on chimpanzee conservations under her  conservation firm Jane Goodall  Institute.

In her visit the conservationist will hold various meeting with  government officials and key stakeholders in the conservation sector.

Jane will  also interact with members of the Roots and  Shoots  the youth  organisation she started  in 1991. Jane and the children  will visit  the chimpanzees’  at the Uganda  Wildlife Education Center  Entebbe.

In Uganda the Jane Goodall Institute has played a big role towards the conservation of chimpanzees in Bunyoro sub region especially in the district of Masindi and Kibaale.

Like in Masindi, the Jane Goodall Institute has supported communities to come up with income generating activities that have reduced pressures on the habitants for chimpanzees in the areas around Budongo Central Forest Reserve, of which parts is habitant for Chimpanzees.

According to Dr. Peter Apell,  the Country Director for Jane Goodall Institute Uganda Chapter, their intervention has enabled communities to embrace conservation through empowering them economically and socially.

“The Intervention of the Institute has increased awareness about conservation. We have done this through conservation clubs in schools and even at the community level. We hope that the more the public becomes aware about the importance of conservation  the more government will earn from  conservation,” said Apell.