Bolstering Agriculture with Save the Mountain Gorillas Seed Project

We are proud to partner with the Joint Efforts for Green Mountain Initiative to support community farming in frontline villages of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

By supporting food production during the crisis time of tourism stoppage, this project helps encourage people to stop killing animals for food while making sure both wildlife and humans can coexist in harmony.

Adult female and baby gorilla in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda

The Need

Since the outbreak of the Coronavirus in Uganda, it has not been business as usual. About 8,232 people in Mukono Parish, Kayonza Sub-county, Kanungu District in Uganda are currently facing an acute phase of food crisis due to not only the effect of new demarcation of the boundary between Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) but also the Covid-19 pandemic, which has left many people restricted to staying home.

Some parts of Mukono parish, such as Mukongoro, Kyoto, and Kabba have been described as chronically food insecure for the past 8 months due to the new demarcation of the border between Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and over 102 households in the three mentioned villages with at least 510 homesteads lost most of their properties to DRC, including residential houses and agriculture. The affected families were not compensated at all; they were left stranded, leaving them in extreme poverty resulting in hunger, domestic violence, and sexual harassment where the young girls are forced to get married in order to have food for the family.

Since the commencement of active gorilla tourism in 1992, frontline villages (Buhoma in particular) of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park have been entirely dependent on tourism. The outbreak of coronavirus resulted in temporary closure of all tourism-related businesses as per the guidelines of the president of the Republic of Uganda. With tourism halted, local people have very limited survival options. As a result, people have encroached on the park and its inhabitants (e.g., Mountain Gorillas). The Ugandan government’s restrictions to control the spread of the coronavirus have created acute distress and food insecurity for the villagers living adjacent to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. This has affected nearly 380 homesteads (including 79 Batwa homesteads) near the park.

The Batwa are among the most affected, as they have been entirely dependent on tourism through dance and drama, as well as selling handicrafts, for their livelihoods. All this is gone now. Their desperation has put Bwindi animals, including gorillas, at great risk of poaching.

Our Contribution

Since there is little government response to assist these communities, we and our partners at Joint Efforts for Green Mountain Initiative are taking a grassroots approach by requesting funding for food resources, including quick-harvest seeds, to support these affected homesteads both during and after the Covid-19 crisis.

If these communities are supported during this challenging time, we expect reduction of risk to the park and its inhabitants, including the gorillas. People will not be forced to depend on resource extraction in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park for livelihood, thereby derailing our previous conservation efforts. The result of food aid will be sustenance for local people and protection for Bwindi wildlife able to survive in an intact forest ecosystem.