The state minister for tourism Godfrey Kiwanda has underscored the need for the government to fence wildlife conservation areas using electrical facing to protect the animals from poachers.
He says currently in places such as Karamojja communities have settled in wildlife areas, because the areas were not properly demarcated pausing a threat to wildlife.
Kiwanda adds that if we are to conserve for the future, then there is a need to fence off all protected areas from the invasion of man.
According to sources in wildlife and conservation, poaching has surged during the COVID19 pandemic from February to June 2020 with the authorities recording 367 poaching cases across the country, more than double the 163 cases recorded during the same period in 2019.
The minister states that poachers are using illegal wire snares and steel traps to catch unsuspecting animals such as antelopes, giraffes and lions. Thousands of these traps are used in Uganda’s national parks.
Now the minister thinks that the only way to safe guard the animals from poachers in by raising electric fences around gazetted wilflife conservation areas.
However, during the pandemic, tourism in Uganda has lost close to $2 Billion US Dollars due to COVID-19 Pandemic
With all the losses, government is working out strategies to see that the country’s leading foreign exchange earner is recovered.
Uganda will on the 27th September be joining the rest of the world to mark the global tourism day with the national events to be held in Fort portal tourism city.
