SRJS_ToC_UG Protection of the natural resources in the Murchison Landscape in Uganda

The Albertine Rift in Western Uganda is an important biodiversity hotspot, with rich wildlife. It is a habitat for 39% of Africa’s mammal species, 51% of Africa’s bird species, 19% of Africa’s amphibian species, 14% of Africa’s plant and reptile species plus 79 endangered terrestrial vertebrates. It also contains around 70% of Uganda’s major protected areas. The Queen Elizabeth and Murchison landscapes have both important aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems such as lake Albert, lake Edward and lake George, savannahs and grasslands, and the Budongo and Bugoma forests. The areas provide crucial ecosystem services, such as food, water and climate resilience, to not only several hundred thousand people in the communities in and around these landscapes, but also downstream water users in Uganda and beyond. A key threat to the ecosystems and the services they provide is the emerging oil and gas sector and its related infrastructure. Backed by foreign investors, oil corporations are expanding their activities, forcing communities off their lands. To access water and provide for their livelihoods, the often poorly compensated displaced communities are forced into new areas including the fringes of protected areas, exerting pressure on them. Poor compliance to environmental regulations by the oil and gas sector is making the area vulnerable to environmental destruction, with potentially far-reaching consequences. An oil spill in the Murchison Park will not only affect hundreds of thousands of fisher folks in Uganda, but also people downstream of the river Nile, reaching as far as the Mediterranean Sea. Uganda is also losing an estimated 200,000 hectares of forests and woodlands annually, mainly due to clearance for plantation agriculture for sugarcane, maize and tobacco, but also due to small-scale subsistence farming and limestone extraction. This deforestation has severe consequences for nature and the people that depend on the services, affecting water quantity and quality and compromising food security due to lower crop yields and fish-stocks. It also makes the country more susceptible to the effects of climate change.