A Ecological Baseline Surveys Of: - Lake Bisina - Nature Uganda

Nakivali area is a refugee settlement area with camps in various parts of the area. This poses a big
challenge to the conservation activities as the increased settlements continue to create the threats
of deforestation and cultivation of the river banks. The high population causes pressure to the
limited lake resources in the region.
2.4.3 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
As indicated in the results, this area is of high biodiversity value with not only birds, but also a variety
of other ecological factors on which they depend. The presence of the large numbers of migrants
and threatened species puts these wetland systems in urgent need for conservation action to
protect the various species and their habitat.
Tree planting programmes in the area should be strengthened and new initiatives supported to
curve down the rate of deforestation in the area. Communities in these wetland systems need to
be sensitized on how to sustainably use resources in this area while conserving them. For example
the river banks should be reforested to reduce runoff and silting of the river and Lakes. These trees
can in the long run act as sources of firewood and food for the communities. Farming in the buffer
zones of the wetland system should be discouraged and laws regarding this enforced to conserve
the wetlands and its biodiversity.
Future researches should concentrate on the gaps in the present research which are mainly the
Rubanga forest, wetlands between L. Bwala and L. Kazuma and Kabwojo Island and the L. Nakivali
wetlands in the Mburo-Nakivali system. If these areas are covered and their biodiversity state
assessed, this will give a firm basis for the conservation actions to be implemented in the two
wetland systems.
At the moment NatureUganda is the only organization doing research on birds in this area. This is
mainly through its waterfowl counts, vulture census and Ramsar surveys. Other organizations are
encouraged to come in and support the avian research work in this region.
2.5 OPETA - BISINA WETLAND SYSTEM
2.5.1 SITE DESCRIPTIONS
Located in Eastern Uganda, this system is a combination of the Lake Opeta Ramsar site and Lake
Bisina Ramsar site both designated as Ramsar sites in 2006. They are both Important Bird Areas
(IBAs). Together, this wetland system covers an area of 123,141ha and is shared by the districts
of Kumi, Katakwi, Soroti, Bukedea, Nakapiripiriti and Sironko. This system consists of one of the
remaining most important and intact wetland marshes in Uganda (WMD/NU 2008). It is predominantly
an extensive swamp of Hippo grass (Vossia cuspidata) graduating into dry Hyparrhenia grassland
savannas. The wetland is very important for the conservation of dry land bird species especially the
Fox’s Weaver Ploceus spekeoides, Uganda’s only endemic bird that breeds in this wetland. Part of
the system covers the Pian-Upe Wildlife Reserve that provides a refuge for the local animals during
the dry season. Pian-Upe constitutes the drier parts of the Karamoja region and hence is richer in
the drier-terrestrial biodiversity. It is adjoined to the Bisina - Opeta wetland system by a series of
marshes and papyrus swamps.
Ecological Baseline Surveys of Lake Bisina, Lake Opeta, Lake Mburo and Nakivali Wetlands Systems 13