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War Threatens Gorillas in DRC

admin — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:46:00 +0000

Fighting between the national army and rebels in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is threatening mountain gorillas, a critically endangered species, the Virunga National Park said Sunday. Just two of the park’s five gorilla patrol posts remain open after the fighting intensified and rebels reportedly moved into the area. Virunga National Park, Africa’s oldest national park, is home to roughly 25% of the world’s mountain gorillas. “We are deeply concerned with the safety of the mountain gorillas that are exposed to the dangers of artillery fire, but we must also take care of our staff that has to be evacuated from the combat zone. As soon as there is a lull in the fighting, we will return to check on the gorillas,” Emmanuel de Merode, chief warden for Virunga National Park, said in a statement. Tourist attractions will remain closed until the security situation improves, the park said.

Mountain gorillas are critically endangered with fewer than 800 left in the wild in the mountains of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. Some 200 are thought to live in the Virunga National Park. Despite its rich resources, Congo battles violence and poverty. The international community has spent massive amounts of money in an effort to stabilize the vast nation. The world’s largest mountain gorilla population, thought to number fewer than 500 animals, is found in a mountainous region known as the Virungas, incorporating Uganda’s Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, and Virunga National Park. A second, smaller population can be found in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, in another region of Uganda.

Reported By,

Lydia

Tours Uganda

Two People injured by the Leopard

admin — Mon, 14 May 2012 07:34:45 +0000

Two residents of Kyangabakama Village in Kamira Sub-County in Luwero District were attacked by a leopard as they tried to kill it on Friday. The two people are said to have laid a trap for the leopard, which has reportedly killed more than 50 animals in Kamira Sub-county. The district youth councilor, Mr Samuel Mulwana, said the beast attacked them leaving them with injuries. The injured are Mr Joseph Serwanga and Mr Robert Sempa. The LC3 chairperson, Mr Livingstone Kategaya, said the leopard, which narrowly escaped the trap, has now put lives of many residents at risk. “We have contacted the Uganda Wildlife Authority to come to the rescue of the residents because this leopard is now injured and highly charged. The residents cannot hunt down this animal,” he said. Reported By,

Lydia

Toursuganda

Doubled Kenya passenger air fees to affect Uganda travelers

admin — Wed, 09 May 2012 10:29:41 +0000

Ugandans traveling through Kenya Airports will beginning July be subjected to slightly higher ticket prices as the Kenya Airports Authority, seeks to double the amount air passengers pay to access its facilities. The move, according to Kenya Airports Authority seeks to mobilize funds for upgrading the country’s airports. On Wednesday Business Daily reported that KAA had received approval from the government to increase the service charge for international passengers from Shs50, 000 ($20) to Shs100,000 ($40) and domestic travelers from Shs9,000 to Shs15,000. Speaking to Daily Monitor yesterday, Mr Donald Ajuoga, the Kenya Airways Uganda country manager said, the new charge would be included in consumer charges, which is likely to slightly push ticket prices northwards.

Mr Ajuoga said: “Even as KQ has not increased its ticket fare, the fuel tax charge and Airport Authority tax have increased which are inclusive of the final consumer charges.

More than two million passengers pass through Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) annually and this means that the authority will collect more than Shs200 billion. “The service charge collected is very significant in the on-going improvement of our airports,” said KAA communications manager Dominic Ngigi.

The authority is expected to generate Shs270 billion in the year ending June and the state is forecasting its revenues to increase to Shs348billion in the 12 months to next June, according to the recent government estimates on the expenditures of state- owned firms. Airlines say that the move will make tickets more costly at a time when the volatility of the shilling against major currencies has kept air fares expensive.

“It is a government directive, which we have no option but to comply with,” said Mustafa Atef, the Egypt Air manager. “As long as the increment is implemented across all airlines, then passengers will have to understand.”

Reported by,

Lydia

Tours Uganda

Birding watching in Uganda

admin — Tue, 08 May 2012 11:04:28 +0000

For birdwatchers, Uganda is a paradise, with over 1,000 species to be seen in their varying habitats. Flamingos, pelicans and storks flock in abundance to the lakes as do various goose and duck types. Wheeling high in the clear blue skies are the birds of prey including eagles amongst them the tawny and the African fish eagle as well as kites, falcons, hawks and buzzards. The sacred Hadada ibises are the other treats for ornithologists, while all visitors will warm to the comical gait of the secretary bird

Kori bustards, the heaviest flying bird, Giant ostrich, secretary and weaver birds are other fascinating species so typical of the African scene.

Reported by,

Lydia

Tours Uganda

Marketing Partnership with Uganda’s hotel business

admin — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 08:25:38 +0000

Local hotels have the chance to be seen by more than 60 million international tourists in more than 70 countries following the signing of a marketing partnership between Expedia, Inc and Africa’s Great Explorations (A.G.E Safaris). The partnership, which will be launched today in Kampala, will result into a massive online presence of Ugandan content thus spurring more visibility of the country’s hotels and the hospitality sector. The internet is currently one of the most popular tools for the promotion of tourism and marketing across the global. The initiative will also give Ugandan hotels a leverage to compete on the international scene. Uganda is currently ranked high as an ideal tourism destination. In a statement, Mr Diego Lofeudo, a senior director of market management at Expedia Inc, said the new partnership gives local hotels a chance to reach new audiences. “We are excited to give hotels in Uganda the opportunity to expand their businesses by offering their profiles on Expedia’s global travel sites, allowing them to attract new audience of international travelers.

Reported by,

Lydia

Tours Uganda

New ferry to help stranded Passengers

admin — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 07:53:07 +0000

Stranded businessmen, tourists and other passengers travelling to Kalangala could soon be relieved as a private ferry company announces plans to conduct daily services to the island. The route is one of the busiest among island areas with a daily traffic of about 200 travelers during week days and 400 during weekends. MV Amani operated by Earth Wise Ferries will throughout this week ply the Port Bell-Kalangala route as it seeks to feel the void left by the now grounded MV Kalangala. Earth Wise Ferries operating under the US based Earth Wise Ventures recently launched its operations plying the Port Bell – Kalangala route

Reported By,

Lydia

Tours Uganda

Search for Oil in Murchison falls national park starts this September

admin — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 09:38:19 +0000

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has discovered that Total E&P (Exploration and Production) are set for a nine month seismic study of the Murchison Falls national park for oil starting this September. Currently only 40% of Uganda’s oil rich Albertine region has been prospected, leading to 58 successful oil wells and deposits of 2.5b barrels of oil. “We have been meeting officials from Total E&P, who informed us of a nine month seismic project they intend to carry out in the Murchison Falls national park starting this September,” said Robert Ddamulira, the WWF Energy and Climate manager for Uganda. He was addressing reporters at the African Centre for Media Excellence in Bunga, Kampala. Ddamulira pointed out that Total will employ 500 people to cover a distance of 100 km with the national park as the epicenter.

Seismic studies involve the use of small quantities of explosives and low frequency sound waves to determine the existence of oil and related hydro carbons. “Previous seismic studies have increased occurrences of poaching in National parks through the creation of wide inroads. The wide roads enable poachers to drive into the park kill large animals,” Ddamulira said. “When successful, they intend to open oil wells and build pipelines through the national park.”

Reported by,

Lydia

Tours Uganda

Uganda for culture

admin — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 08:35:03 +0000

Even if Uganda is the country where about one hundred years ago a group of young men were killed for not denouncing their Christian faith and later declared saints by the Christian Churches, there are still very many Ugandans that have stuck to their traditional religious beliefs and are determined never to abandon them. Take an example of Iseri Nabayunga, the self-styled priestess who lives close to Wajjinja, the hill of stone in Ndagwe Sub-county, Lwengo District. According to her, all the harsh climatic changes that we are witnessing these days-the floods, the extreme humidity, and the prolonged droughts are upon us because we have annoyed the spirits of our ancestors by abandoning our traditional ways of worship and accepted those from foreign lands. She also claims all the incurable diseases like HIV/Aids are killing us because we have annoyed our ancestors by desecrating “holy”

Places like Wajjinja, which she claims has been allocated to her by the ancestors to guard and sustain. “Many people come from all over the country and misbehave on the hill,” she says. “They drink European beer and other types of European alcoholic drinks. They smoke cigarettes and many of them even make love up there. They don’t understand that we have rules governing the holy place. But what is so unfair is that the ancestors come to me and beat me up in the night blaming me for not stopping those evil people from desecrating the holy place.” She says nobody must go up the hill without her knowledge or permission and everybody going there must walk on barefoot because the place is holy. So come and experience the uniqueness in Ugandan cultures.

Reported by,

Lydia

Tours Uganda

Young chimpanzees rescued from Traders

admin — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 08:17:12 +0000

Madina, four, Mimi, five, Coco, five and Sarah, two, are young chimpanzees who missed a flight to Europe or Middle East to be taken as pets. They were sneaked to Southern Sudan through Congo, thinking the country’s laws on animals were not as strong as those in Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda. If it were not for the intervention of the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance consultant, Annie Olivecrona, who formerly worked with Chimpanzee Sanctuary and Wildlife Conservation trust, the chimps would have been sold off as pets. Experts say that young Chimpanzees cost between $10,000 to $20,000 (about Shs 24m to Shs 48m) on the world market. The operation to rescue the endangered primates was spear headed by Sudanese wildlife officials, who worked closely with Olivercona with assistance from Disney Rapid Response Fund, Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), Uganda Wildlife Education Centre (UWEC), and the Chimpanzee Sanctuary and Wildlife Conservation Trust (CSWCT) to fly the chimps to Uganda. Dr Joshua Rukundo, Chimpanzee Sanctuary and Wildlife Conservation Trust veterinary doctor, says the chimps had been de-toothed to stop them from biting the illicit traders and were malnourished. They underwent eight month quarantine atUganda Wildlife Educational Centre before being taken to Ngamba Island that is going to be their permanent home. At Ngamba Island on Lake Victoria, the chimps found 48 other orphaned chimpanzees rescued from traffickers and a perfect sanctuary to stay on.

Ngamba Island only recently became popular as the home of the 22-year-old Chimpanzee Natasha who according to findings by a group of German scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Germany in a study conducted five years ago, is the most intelligent in the world. She is believed to be a “genius” who was “intellectually closer to humans than most apes”. Scientists have rate the DNA of chimpanzees to 98.7 per cent similar to that of human beings, which makes them such coveted animals. Like human beings, they find problems in getting assimilated in new families.

Reported by,

Lydia

Tours Uganda

Uganda the Pearl of Africa

admin — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 09:08:21 +0000

When it comes to adventure, Kidepo Valley National Game Park stands out, this invaluable natural resource has been visited and revisited and the extra-ordinary features on it shape its outstanding beauty, which remain a myth to those who have not visited it and a secret to those who have visited it. The few people who make the journey north through the wild frontier region of Karamoja to visit it, would agree that it is among the most magnificent in Africa’s finest wilderness. The National park; planted on rocks, over looks expansive grassy plains dotted with big rocky outcrops and flanked by steep jagged mountains with the summit ridges of Napore range, Taan hills and Natera hills, part of Nyangea, Morongole and Zuulia forest reserves are located within the park. The area conservation manager Johnson Masereka says this consideration combined the valley’s open, savanna habitat, makes it the park’s prime game viewing location. “And indeed it is possible to sight a good variety of wildlife simply by scanning the valley with binoculars from the comfort of either Uganda Wildlife Authority offices or Apoka lodge,” adds Masereka.

According to the Uganda Wildlife Authority guide Bernard Lotu, who took us on a tour, the park contains one of the most exciting fauna of any Ugandan national park with 77 species of mammal, several of which are (in Uganda) restricted to Kidepo and Karamoja sub-region. “Just look at those localized carnivores; the bat-eared fox, the stripped hyena, Aardwolf, Caraca and Cheeta, lion, leopard, spotted hyena and black-backed and side stripped jackal, these are not in any other park,” Lotu points at the animals as he explains. He revealed that the less common ungulates include the greater and lesser Kudu, Chandlers, Mountain Reedbuck, klipspringer and Guenther’s dikdik.

Reported by,

Lydia

Tours Uganda