In a bid to fight illegal wildlife trade and trafficking in Queen Elizabeth and Virunga national parks, Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) through their wildlife authority bodies have embarked on trans-boundary collaboration to curb the vice.
The wildlife authorities in Uganda include International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) in partnership with the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA).
IFAW is an international non-governmental organisation that protects animals and their habitants.

The UWA deputy executive director, Mr George Owoyesigire, said Uganda is endowed with diverse natural resources such as wildlife, forests and wetlands, but poaching, illegal wildlife trade and habitat degradation remain threats.
“We have seen a serious decline in wildlife populations due to poaching and illegal wildlife trade,” he said.
Mr Owoyesigire said this on Saturday at Koikoi in Fort Portal Town during a training of security and law enforcement officers within Queen Elizabeth and Virunga national parks on how to detect and combat illegal wildlife trade.

He said due to the efforts, UWA with support from stakeholders are beginning to witness an increase in wild animals.
“For instance, elephant population decreased from 30,000 in 1960 to only 2,000 by 1983 and have since increased to 5,808 in 2017; buffalos were 60,000 in 1960 decreased to 25,000 in 1982 but have since increased to 37,054,” he said.
Mr Owoyesigire said deforestation has had devastating effects on the forest cover from more than 30 per cent in 1990 to less than 9 per cent by 2019, wetland cover from more than 40 per cent in 1980 to less than 8 per cent by 2018.

“As a result of degradation, wild life in habitats have been destroyed, lakes have been depleted and that’s the very reason we are experiencing an increase in human-wildlife conflicts, poverty and poaching as people strive to earn a living,” he said.
The programmes director of IFAW, Mr Moses Olinga, said collaborating with the neighbouring country (DRC) will help in combating illegal wildlife trade easily.
He said: “When animals cross from Uganda to DRC, they are killed because it is unknown where they belong. The border between Uganda and DRC has been used by poachers, and they have been killing animals from Uganda and they take them to DRC and vice versa.”

He said pangolins have been the most poached animals because of their medicinal scales and therefore there is need for security agencies to get skills on how to identify scales of pangolins, skins of leopards, cheetahs, among others.
“People trying to smuggle chimps and other animals have been arrested at Entebbe, Jomo Kenyatta and Addis Ababa international airports” he added.
Kabarole Resident District Commissioner Stephen Asiimwe appealed to UWA officials and other stakeholders to also domesticate laws such as the Wildlife Act and the constitution [explain the laws in local languages] because people are not informed.