Discussion on Habituation Plans

Recently a number of press articles and email discussions have covered the potential plan to habituate new gorilla groups for tourism in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda. However, as of going to press, habituation has not yet started, pending a review of the issue.
The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) is rightly concerned about finances with the upcoming end of World Bank funding that has provided support for UWA operations. It is reasonable to expect the authority to explore means of supplementing its income to compensate for the end of this funding, including the possibility of expanding its mountain gorilla tourism programme, which has been providing over 50% of the authority's revenues in recent years. However, rather than rushing into the habituation of a new group, UWA has called a meeting of its research and management staff and advisors at the field level to discuss the issue and to make an informed recommendation to UWA headquarters. This field meeting will take place in the last week of May 2007.
The meeting will be attended by field staff as well as members of the regional advisory panel on mountain gorilla management issues (including tourism) called the Gorilla Management Technical Advisory Committee (GMTAC). The GMTAC was formed as an outcome of regional meetings and was tasked with providing input to the three protected area authorities based on technical debate among people with scientific and management expertise. A number of members of this group have been invited to the May meeting to provide input on the Bwindi habituation issue.
The GMTAC will use this meeting as an opportunity to test and refine a tool it is developing, called the Habituation Impact Analysis (HIA). The HIA will be a decision-tree model to be used as a guide for addressing the wide range of questions and issues related to the cost-benefit analysis of habituation, whether for research or for tourism. It will guide stakeholders in analysing available information, and in identifying information gaps or alternate opportunities for addressing needs.
The recommendations from the May meeting will be forwarded to UWA headquarters and the UWA board for consideration. Through the results of the May meeting, and followed up with a concerted effort by UWA technical staff and their NGO advisors, we hope to be able to lead the decision/policy makers through a rational analysis of the costs and benefits of habituating additional groups.

Liz Macfie

Update

Dr. Liz Macfie was the Director of the Volcano Veterinary Centre (now MGVP) in Rwanda from 1989 to 1992, the Uganda Country Programme Officer for IGCP (International Gorilla Conservation Programme) from 1992 to 1998, and the IGCP Programme Manager from 2002 to 2005, and is currently a free-lance consultant working on ape tourism policy and management.

Gorillas in general - overview

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