Report on my Trip to Uganda
The 21st Congress of the International Primatological Society (IPS) was held in Entebbe from June 25th to 30th, and was opened by the Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in person. The central topic for the conference was "Primate Conservation in Action". Berggorilla & Regenwald Direkthilfe presented a poster on this topic, illustrating projects in Uganda that we have been supporting over the past few years. Many gorilla researchers from Africa, Europe, America, Australia and Japan attended the conference, as did some of the partners from the conservation projects supported by us. Many interesting talks were given and some speakers have summarized the results of their studies for the Gorilla Journal.
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| At the IPS congress: Kelly Stewart and Sandy Harcourt | Ben Beck | John Hart and John Oates Photos: Angela Meder |
As Yvonne Verkaik has moved on to other tasks, she had suggested the
employment of her colleague Alex Mugale as our new assistant. Alex is
28 years old; she was working in education and employed in the Kampala
office of the Rhino Fund for approximately 3 years. She has been
working for us since August 2006 and she has already represented Berggorilla
& Regenwald Direkthilfe at an international meeting of gorilla
conservationists.
After the IPS meeting I travelled to Kisoro to meet various cooperation
partners, to visit their facilities and hotels and to make a trip to the
Mgahinga National Park. The Travellers Rest in Kisoro has been completely
renovated. The rooms have been equipped in very good taste, the restaurant
is good and guests can sit on the terrace of a well-kept garden.
Various hiking opportunities are offered in the Mgahinga Gorilla National
Park, giving visitors a chance to visit different attractions such as
the golden monkeys (Cercopithecus kandti), or to hike through the
individual habitats of the park. I myself went on a tour to a cave that
was once used by Pygmies. A car park and an education building are now
located directly adjacent to the park entrance. A beautifully paved walkway
between the Hagenia trees planted by Ursula Karlowski takes the
visitor to the Visitor Centre, which was opened in July 2006. It is an
impressive building with large rooms and enormous windows. This is now
the place where you register for a visit to the park. It must be said,
however, that all these facilities are located inside the park; some of
the park's land had to be paved over for this purpose.
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| Hagenia trees at the park's entrance Photos: Angela Meder |
The new visitor centre inside the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, a few days before it was opened in July 2006 |
There are still numerous exotic trees inside the park, some of which
have now reached a considerable height; they are to be removed one by
one, and the natural vegetation is regenerating slowly. The buffalo wall
built by Klaus-Jürgen Sucker still works well. Sometimes it gets
destroyed by elephants, but reportedly the damage is usually repaired
quickly. Unfortunately, bamboo shoots are still taken out of the park
as part of the permitted multiple use activities. It seems that sometimes
bamboos do not take root in peoples' home gardens as the soil is not suitable,
and the people receive permission to collect new plants from the park.
The habituated gorilla group still migrates between the three countries.
As it cannot be predicted how long the gorillas will stay in any one country,
tourists are not taken to them unless they have already been in Uganda
for a fairly substantial period. During my visit on July 4th, they had
been in the country for several days, but it was still not possible for
tourists to visit them.
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| The knitting cooperative in Mutolere produces
sweaters for the rangers in the Virunga National Park, Democratic
Republic of the Congo. Photo: Angela Meder |
The rangers with their new sweaters Photo: Claude Sikubwabo |
Waltraud Ndagijimana invited me to visit her in Mutolere near Kisoro. I also visited the women's cooperative, which was in the process of knitting sweaters for the rangers of the Virunga National Park. In July, the women were still working on this assignment; by now the sweaters have arrived in the Congo, and we were able to give the next order to the cooperative: sweaters for the rangers in Rwanda.
Angela Meder
Dr. Angela Meder studied the behaviour and development
of captive lowland gorillas for 10 years. Today she works as a book editor.
Since 1992 she has been part of the Board of Directors of Berggorilla
& Regenwald Direkthilfe.