By Baluku Alex
Cross-Cultural Foundation of Uganda, a non-governmental organization has embarked on conserving forests and the Chimpanzee using the Culture in development approach during this period when the country is partially under lock due to the prevalence of Covid-19.
According to the Uganda Wild Life Authority-UWA, the Chimpanzees in Africa are faced with threats of habitat loss, poaching for the bush meat and exotic pet trade and in the Rwenzori sub-region the habit for the Chimpanzees has been degraded.
From 2001 to 2020, Kasese district has lost 952 hectares of humid primary forest, making up to 11%of its total tree cover loss in the same period and the total area of humid primary forest in the district decreased by 4.0%.
It’s upon this background that Cross-Cultural Foundation of Uganda has come on board to discuss strategies for strengthening the sustainability of forests for Chimpanzee conservation by harnessing indigenous resources, indigenous tree planting and livelihood interventions.
Speaking during the stakeholders’ dialogue meeting on Chimpanzee conservation yesterday at White House Hotel in Kasese town, the Cross-Cultural Foundation of Uganda Deputy Executive Director, Mr. Amon Kitooke said that they are working with the totemic systems to conserve the Chimpanzee because of the clans among the Bakonzo and other ethnicities that live in the Rwenzori each clan has a totem.
He said that the totem of the Batangyi clan is the Chimpanzee and so they work with the Batangyi Cultural leaders to see that they preserve the Chimpanzee.
He encouraged the community members to plant trees and to desist from poaching saying that Uganda has only fewer than 5,000 Chimpanzees where by the rate of killing them is more than their reproduction.
Details about the story to follow…
