Boosting Local Tourism Through Bird Watching

In a bid to promote local tourism in Uganda the National Forestry Authority – NFA as well as Uganda Wildlife Authority – UWA are planning to let locals enter the national park free of charge and help in identifying as many unknown bird species as possible. This is to enable boost local earnings from Uganda’s tourism.

According to statistics from the Uganda Wildlife Authority the number of tourists to Uganda national parks is mainly foreign non-resident tourists who average about 61,000. This is closely followed by students on field trips who make up approx. 42,000 while only a palty 30,000 are locals.

This project is expected to be conducted with the help of ornithologists as well as the many local bird guides who were recently trained as well as seasoned birders.

The acting director of tourism and business services of Uganda Wildlife Authority, Mr. Stephen Sanyi Masaba this initiative is aimed at helping to promote the bird watching in the Country as well provide information about Uganda ‘s bird species to the international community.

Uganda has over 1047 recorded bird species which is more than half of the bird species found in Africa as a continent. According to Mr. Masaba bird watching in Uganda alone has the potential to generate over Shs 126 billion approx. $45m each given year if only the Country could attract 10,000 foreign tourists to see birds only. At press conference at the Uganda Media Centre, he said that in 2008 compared to mountain gorilla tracking which brought in $3.3 million, Uganda birding watching brought in $6m.

During the event all the birds seen or heard in the wild will be recorded. The birding tours will be carried out in the following selected sites

• Semuliki National Park
• Murchison Falls National Park
• Lake Mburo national park
• Mount Elgon national park and forest
• Kibale Forest National Park
• Mgahinga Gorilla National Park
• Bwindi Impenetrable National Park
• Kidepo Valley National Park