Responsible tourism in Uganda

Being in Uganda can feel like such a privilege. Surrounded by phenomenal volcanic landscapes, wildlife that many of us grew up dreaming of seeing with our own eyes, and some of the continent’s most friendly, welcoming people making you feel like a VIP wherever you go – it’s hard not to feel overwhelmed by it all. Uganda really gives visitors all it can.

While the country is incredibly rich in terms of biodiversity and culture, it is economically still very poor. Over 80 percent of Ugandans live in rural areas, with the majority working as subsistence farmers. The country has been battered over the years by military coups, murderous dictators, HIV epidemics and the Lord’s Resistance Army, a guerilla army led by Joseph Kony that waged war on the northern regions of Uganda from 1987 for almost 20 years. While these events are, thankfully, over, their effects still linger, in terms of poverty rates, illiteracy, lack of access to education, poor infrastructure and orphaned children. Uganda may appear to fit the “poor but happy” narrative that so many travellers love, with beaming faces, energetic dances and excitable kids, but it’s worth reading up on the country’s history, chatting to your tour leader and finding out more about the realities of daily Ugandan life before being sucked in quite so easily by those winning smiles.

WILDLIFE & ENVIRONMENT

Mountain gorillas

The conservation of Uganda’s mountain gorillas is a genuine success story. The species was discovered in 1902, and numbers subsequently fell at an alarming rate due to habitat loss, poaching, war and disease – which is easily transmitted from humans. By 1989, there were an estimated 620 mountain gorillas remaining in the wild, and as this species does not survive in captivity (unlike the lowland gorilla of Central and West Africa), captive breeding was never an option.

Bwindi Impenetrable and Mgahinga Gorilla National Parks were created in 1991, and since then numbers have risen by some 40 percent to around 880 gorillas. But simply gazetting the parks was not enough; it needed to go hand in hand with incredibly regulated and well managed tourism in order to ensure the necessary resources to ensure the parks remained safe. Today, 21 gorilla families have been habituated and accessible to visitors across five tracking regions: Buhoma, Ruhija, Rushaga, and Nkuringo and Nyakagezi.

When it comes to the mountain gorillas, low tourist numbers and heavy restrictions (visitors can spend no more than an hour with the gorillas) are not simply a gimmick; they are essential to prevent the gorillas from becoming distressed or from catching diseases; even a common cold can prove highly dangerous. Being in their presence is a privilege, and it does have to come at a cost. But know that by visiting them you are contributing directly to their survival – and the experience is, ultimately, priceless.