Revenue share to local governments from Murchison Falls National Park declines

MASINDI– The government through Uganda Wildlife Authority [[UWA] has resumed remitting money to districts that host Murchison Falls National Park as a share of the revenue generated from tourists that come to visit one of Uganda’s famous tourist attractions.

The Murchison National Park is bordered by the 6 districts which include Nwoya, Oyam, Pakwach, Bulisha, Masindi and Kiryandongo in an area of about 500 square kilometers.

As wildlife-human conflict raged on for years, the government adopted a strategy in mitigating the conflict with the revenue generated from the park since 2003 through the wildlife regulatory body.

Meanwhile, as the Covid 19 pandemic hit harder on the tourism sector, one of the economic mainstays in the Country, the funding to the local governments in the affected areas was suspended in 2020.

However, on Friday in Masindi at Masindi Hotel, the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities [MoTWA] issued a cheque of Shs 2.93 billion to the affected districts which declined from Shs 4.2 bln in 2019, showing a decline in receipts to the districts.

The fund is generated from 20 percent of the revenue collected from each visitor or tourist who enters the park which annually accumulates and is remitted to the local governments for support according to the Wildlife Act of 2019.

Bilisha district received the highest amount of Shs 736 million followed by Kiryandongo with Shs 680mln, Nwoya with Shs 672mln, Pakwach Shs 347mln, Masindi Shs 283mln and Oyam with Shs 208mln.

The Executive Director of UWA Sam Muwenda told the Cooperator in an interview that up to a tune of Shs14.7 billion was invested to support the communities since 2003.

He revealed that 39.6 percent was meant for the rehabilitation and construction of schools in the affected areas, 7.8 percent went for health, 39.2 percent for livelihoods, 10.9 for roads, and 2.5 percent for sanitation.

On the revenue performance decline, Muwanda noted that the restriction against foreign nationals from entry into the country affected tourism to generate money.

The Minister Tom Butime however noted that, unlike the previous support, the new funding is a conditional grant which the accounting officer of each district must account for.

“The funds didn’t reach the intended beneficiaries in the past but we have a new policy guideline to which accounting officers will be held accountable for any misuse of the funds,” Butime warned.

He revealed that the new policy allows 5 percent of the fund is meant for monitoring the different projects under the implementation, 30 percent for operational costs while 65 percent is tailored for livelihood projects.

The fund is meant for the mitigation of wildlife-human conflict in the subcounties neighboring the parks which are highly hit by wildlife with wanton destruction of lives, crops and property.

The Nwoya district Chairman Emmanuel Orach who received the cheque on behalf of the district has commended the government for the resumption of the program.

Orach explained that the district has witnessed a series of invasions of stray elephants which destroyed lives, crops and property over the years without much attention from the central government.

He noted that the new funding will support the farmers to invest in coffee production, tea and livestock farming to improve the livelihoods of the affected communities against wildlife invasion.

He further revealed that over 85,000 households in the sub counties neighboring the park have lost their livelihoods alone in 2021 after stray elephants destroyed the crops in their gardens.

“We are prioritizing growing of tea and coffee along the park which will act as a barrier to elephants to cross over to the community land and also to change the livelihoods of people,” Orach explained.

However, his counterpart Benson Dilla, the district Chair for Oyam has raised concern over the expenditure of the fund which he says could be disrupted with the current policy guideline.

Dilla explained that the implementing sub counties of the project will have to sit for an emergency council meeting to approve the expenditure of the fund in line with the new policy guideline.

“The District will have to sit and pass a supplementary budget for this money to reflect in the budget but one other issue is that the money is coming at the closure of the financial year and we may not exhaust” He added.

The Masindi district Tourism Officer Rita Karungi says there must be intensive sensitization of the locals to appreciate the value of wildlife to enable them protect the conservation area which she says has seen the rising number of poaching which endangers the wildlife species for tourist attraction.

She noted that though with resource constraints, the district has rolled out sensitization in the affected areas for the development of the local tourism for job creation and to earn a living from.

She further explained that the district has targeted the different associations to train them in skill development in art and craft which has high value and demand from the tourists.

The Proprietor of Masindi Hotel and a board member of Uganda Tourism Training Institute Nahida Bhegani have appealed to the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities to speed up compensation processes of the affected communities from wildlife to reduce poaching.

Bhegani explained that the lack of a clear policy of compensation has contributed to poaching from the affected communities, whose crops and property were destroyed, hence affecting the growth of tourism in the country.

The country’s tourism-related activities are based on wildlife whose flora and fauna comprise 1020 species of birds and 350 species of other animals are one of the economic mainstays of the country’s economy.

The sector earned the country US$1.6bln in 2019 for gross domestic product-GDP and created new jobs for 6,000 people in the informal sector but the pandemic left 74.4 percent of the employees from the Industry jobless.

The report from [MoTWA] shows a drastic decline of US$1.06bln, (Shs 3.91 trillion) in the Tourism Sector alone between March 2020 and June 2020 when the lockdown was adopted in the country.

According to the World Bank report of December 2020, Uganda’s economic growth slowed for the first time in a decade by about 4.5 percent from 7.5 percent in 2019 with the collapse in the consumption and investment of the imports and the incomes earned by the foreign investors.

The report further indicates that 3 million people in the country slid back below the poverty line due to the impact of the pandemic, adding to the 8.7mln people who were already in poverty.

However, as the government responded to the fiscal and monetary policies to support the health care, the social assistance in the country remained limited with fewer than 2 percent of the citizens receiving direct cash transfers as the report further indicates.

At least 40,000 visitors arrived in the country after the lockdown was eased of the projected 1,663,568 arrivals expected by December 2020 but there was no clear breakdown of the countries with more arrivals into the country from the database of the Uganda Tourism Board.

https://thecooperator.news/rwenzori-communities-receive-uwa-support-urged-to-shun-poaching/

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