Four years ago, Tusk and Ripple Effect, a charity bringing smallholder farmers together to learn new skills and share knowledge so they can improve their livelihoods and thrive, launched the Living with Wildlife appeal to promote human-wildlife co-existence in and around Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda.
Since then, the region has experienced great challenges, and the Living with Wildlife project has become more important than ever in supporting the park and local communities through difficult times.
It first began as an appeal that ran for three months at the start of 2020, and thanks to the generosity of Tusk and Ripple Effect’s supporters, it significantly exceeded its original fundraising target: £1.3 million was raised overall and was kindly matched by the UK government.
The funds were allocated to enhance food security, create additional livelihood opportunities, and foster positive relations with the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), benefiting 38,000 people.
Ripple Effect played a pivotal role in enhancing crop yields and ensuring year-round access to nutritious food for families in the vicinity of the national park. This initiative led to a notable 47% improvement in food security, with 31% of those who underwent training now surpassing the international poverty line of £1.90 per day. The rest have built resilience and skills that will help them succeed in the future.
Through Tusk’s partnership with the Uganda Conservation Foundation (UCF), 120 young people received vocational training in trades that were specifically chosen to meet local demand and offer immediate employment opportunities and a steady income without turning to the park’s natural resources; 78% found jobs after their training ended.
Alongside this, and through Tusk’s PACE programme, 13,693 people were also educated on the importance of the national park, wildlife, and protecting endangered species such as the Rothschild’s giraffe (for which the park is one of their greatest strongholds).
This included children at 40 different schools, helping to build the next generation of conservationists. Reinforcing this objective, meaningful trips into the national park were organised for 350 schoolchildren and 510 community members. For many, this was the first time that they had been able to experience the park in this way and to develop a greater appreciation of its wildlife.
Opar Aldo, a Local Council Chairperson who went on one of the park visits, said: ‘I saw very many poacher tools that the rangers collected, this shows the rangers are doing a great job. After the park visit, I came back to my village and encouraged poachers to stop poaching wildlife. Three poachers have since stopped poaching after following my advice.’
Thanks to the Living with Wildlife Project, 58% of community members now report a ‘positive’ or 'very positive’ relationship with the Uganda Wildlife Authority, compared to just 22% at the start of the project. This is even more impressive and important because of all the unforeseen challenges that the project had to contend with.
Towards the end of the appeal, the global COVID pandemic struck.
Tourism to Murchison Falls collapsed as restrictions to control the spread of the virus were introduced. Without it, no revenue was generated to pay rangers or to support the protection of the park; the 20% of tourism income that the Uganda Wildlife Authority invests in the community evaporated, and the only vibrant economy folded in an area where unemployment was already rife. As feared, the hunting and trapping of wildlife began to soar, along with the collection of natural resources such as firewood, as people tried to make ends meet.
The challenges presented by COVID were added to as the Nile flooded to levels higher than in recorded history. The floods displaced thousands of fishermen and farmers living along the banks of the Nile and the shores of Lake Albert, many of whom resorted to poaching as an alternative.
Hippos that normally frequent shallow areas and sandy beaches were meanwhile pushed into community areas, feeding on crops and putting villagers in great danger. The Living with Wildlife Project’s role in supporting and promoting human-wildlife co-existence therefore became greater than ever.
While poaching did not decrease as expected because of the extra challenges, all the above interventions have brought the park and community closer together and will help reduce pressure on the park in the long term while supporting the local community through an extremely vulnerable moment in time.
As we look back at the project and the impact it has had over the past three years, Tusk and its partner Ripple Effect are looking at how these successes can be sustained.
Dissecting how the important lessons learned are implemented, both in Uganda and elsewhere across Africa, to secure greater co-existence between people and wildlife in a constantly changing world, it will be vital to continue to look forward to future endeavours and how best they can keep supporting living with wildlife.
