Uganda Atlas of Our Changing Environment - GRID-Arendal

Conservation areas: Wildlife
Gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (2008)
Uganda is rich in wildlife resources that are located
in both gazettted areas and on private lands.
In addition to forest reserves, Uganda has four
types of wildlife protected areas namely national parks,
wildlife reserves, wildlife sanctuaries, and community
wildlife areas; classified according to the degree of
protection accorded. These areas are entirely for
conservation of wildlife. There are six forest national
parks namely Mgahinga, Bwindi impenetrable, Kibale,
Semliki, Rwenzori Mountains and Mt. Elgon.
There are also four savannah ecosystem national parks
namely Lake Mburo, Queen Elizabeth, Murchison Falls,
and Kidepo.
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park
The National parks occupy a total area of 11,150 km 2
(4% of the country’s area). There are also ten wildlife
reserves which occupy 8,760 km 2 (3.6% of the country’s
area) of the country’s area, and consist primarily of
grassland with patches of dry woodland and scrubland.
In addition, there are seven wildlife sanctuaries and
thirteen community wildlife areas. Overall, protected
Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) 2008
57%
Area (sq. km)
wildlife areas occupy about 20% of the area of Uganda,
which is quite a significant proportion.
Uganda boasts of a diversity of wildlife both flora and
fauna species; which are mainly due to a diversity of
landscapes that lead to different ecosystems ranging
from mountain, tropical forests to savannah grasslands.
The conservation areas habour species of both national
and global importance.
The main economic benefit from the wildlife estate has
been revenue earnings from tourism. The other benefits
include cultural and scientific. The conservation of
Uganda’s wildlife resources also has benefits of global
significance. Sustainable use of these conservation areas
faces many challenges such as increased population
pressure leading to competition for land resources,
and conflict between humans and wildlife. Wildlife
conservation in Uganda faces a number of threats which
include encroachment on the conservation areas for
agriculture and settlements, poaching, destruction of
wildlife considered to be vermin.
2%
23%
18%
National Parks
Wildlife reserves
Wildlife sanctuaries
Community wildlife areas
Proportional area coverage of each of the
conservation categories
39