Officials from the Uganda Wild Life Authority (UWA) managing Queen Elizabeth protected area and their colleagues managing the greater Virunga national park in the Democratic Republic of Congo have disparaged increasing wildlife crimes.
This was during a meeting arranged by the International Fund for Animal welfare that was meant to enhance the state of wildlife welfare within the two national parks.
At the meeting, some of the decried crimes included cross boarder poaching where by criminals freed countries where crime had been committed to neighboring countries.
Hinted on also was illegal wildlife trade where illegal items such as
The conservation area manager for Queen Elizabeth National park protected area, Edward Asalu, said that there was a need for coordinated patrols on either side of the park so as to combat poaching.
“Queen Elizabeth National Park is the most visited, among national parks in Uganda, even though we face challenges when it comes to wildlife crimes. Because tourism and wildlife are sectors that contribute to foreign exchange, the park has started sensitizing the community, concerning people who enter the park for reasons of poaching,” Asalu further remarked.
Speaking at the meeting, Annet Tuhiasomwe, the legal manager in charge of prosecution at UWA said that Uganda wildlife has been faced with illegal trade in ivory, pangolin scales, poaching among other forms of illegal wildlife trade.
She also commented that Uganda is also used as a channel for illegal wildlife items such as ivory from other countries, especially the ones neighboring Uganda like Burundi.
However regardless of all these crimes, the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) has continuously been devoted to battling wildlife life crimes in the country.
Moses Olinga, the program manager at IFAW, said that there was an extraordinary increament in illegal wildlife crime, which is threatening to reverse decades of conservation gains, driven by a growing demand for wildlife and their products which is pushing several iconic species to the brink of extinction.
Mr. Olinga further said IFAW was supporting interventions in the two national parks of Queen and Virunga so as to combat wildlife crime and that there was a need for improved coordination between the two governments of Uganda and Congo so that if one committed a crime, and ran to Congo, they would be brought back to Uganda to face the law.
Speakers at the meeting attributed all the crimes to the limited capacity of the law enforcement and lack of equipment to run enforcement policies and therefore called upon the judicial and law enforcement officials in the two countries to act together and combat wildlife crimes.
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