Help the Bwindi Community benefit from Gorillas

To : Friends of Nature all over the world

We, the undersigned, ...do not believe that Uganda Wildlife Authority’s (UWA’s) decision to allocate gorilla permits to the Uganda Safari Company (TUSC) through NCDF will be of any benefit to communities surrounding Bwindi Forest, Tourism Stakeholders in Uganda and abroad plus the tourists themselves. Bwindi Forest is estimated to have 340 of the 720 mountain gorillas left in the world. The 340 Mountain Gorillas in the jungles of Bwindi Forest National Park comprise over 32 families. A family of gorillas is composed of between 10 and 30 members that include one or two Silverbacks and several juvenile/ Blackbucks. Of the 32 groups, only 4 have so far been habituated for tourism purposes though 2 other groups are likely to be open for tourism by the end of this year. The selling of gorilla permits has since the early 1990's been the sole responsibility of Uganda Wild Life Authority (UWA). However, recently UWA decided to "privatize" one of the habituated groups i.e. the Nkuringo family of gorillas. With effect from August 2008, it is said that the buying of Nkuringo permits will be done through the Uganda Safari Company (TUSC). Which to most tourism stakeholders in Uganda is not fair given the competitiveness and scarcity of the permits? Under no circumstances should permits be sold by a private operator and certainly owning a lodge should not be a reason for 6 of the 8 permits to be sold by TUSC on behalf of NCDF. It’s sad that now we are fast loosing hold of the stakes and worse still, UWA in the schedule iii of the management agreement gave a node to the controversial deal between NCDF and TUSC. If this trend of events is not stopped soon, the rare Mountain Gorillas may be destined for doom as any thing could happen to their habitat as a result of disgruntled parties since the terms of the agreement are edging out other members of the community from doing business. Besides, the whole industry will be affected as there will be loss of tourism traffic, loss of revenue and loss of employment. This deal will also promote favoritism and discrimination as it is a monopoly of sorts on a competitive product. We are asking the private investor to withdraw their condition of tagging gorilla permits to their lodge and also request Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) to cancel this deal. UWA should take on its usual responsibility of selling the gorilla permits as mandated by Act of Parliament.

Current Number of Signatures : 204

This Petition was created by Baluku Geoffrey.