Birding-Inspired Conservation in the Gorilla Highlands of Uganda
Among the Kiga People of the Gorilla Highlands of Uganda, bird conservation has been a real priority for hundreds of years. Birds announced the seasons of the year, predicted the rains, and even the death of relatives. More so, every clan had a ‘bird friend,’ a bird that they would never kill. This created a brand of conservation whose roots in culture were very deep.
With cultural erosion, however, and the population explosion in the gorilla highlands, there has been a shift in bird conservation dynamics. Bird-rich Wetlands have yielded to farming, and forested hills have been food-cultivated to their tips. The unintended consequence is that this habitat loss has negatively affected the bird life in the gorilla highlands of Uganda.
This talk reveals birding as the “organic” solution to this negative trend in bird conservation. The forests that have been preserved for the Gorillas are the last strongholds for birds, yet even the birds there are threatened by the use of pesticides in the neighbouring farms. The speaker has come to care about nature conservation because he cares about the birds, and he believes that this dynamic is scalable.
Additional Details
Webinar link - https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81852349439?pwd=K3ppeW1Xazl0ZzBzdUxUdloyUGVJdz09
Meeting ID - 818 5234 9439
Passcode - 251782
Event platform - zoom
Interaction
Please ask any questions in the chat during the webinar.
Organizer
Paul Turyagumanawe is a Lawyer by profession and a Tour Guide by Occupation. He specializes in the Range-Restricted Highland birds of the Albertine Rift. For six years, he has been guiding tours in Uganda, Rwanda & Eastern Congo, and currently runs Safari Support Services Limited.
He’s also a Certified Tour Guide instructor with the Directorate of Industrial Training (DIT), and a pioneer facilitator of the Ukarimu Curriculum . He believes that every guide needs to know the birds, especially if you guide tourists in a country such as Uganda.
During the COVID-19 break, Paul started working on a book on Bird Behaviour. In actual sense, the book was working on him, turning him into a passionate naturalist. He soon discovered that birding is the most underrated tool for turning men & women, and especially young people, into conservationists. Together with a few friends, they have started the Uganda Avian Conservation Society.