Uganda Wildlife Authority wishes to warn the Ugandan as well as the international community against dealing with a company calling itself Uganda Savannah Hunting, which is purporting to organize safari-hunting trips in Uganda.
Information obtained from the Internet indicates that the company alleges to be able to organise hunting safaris all year round in the Ssese Islands, Kyambura Wildlife Reserve, Toro-Semliki Wildlife Reserve, East Madi Wildlife Reserve and Kidepo Valley National Park.
From information UWA has seen, Uganda Savannah Hunting plans to charge the public colossal amounts of money ranging between US$750 and US$1200 depending on the number of safari days taken.
The Uganda Wildlife Authority wishes to categorically make it clear that it has, at no time, issued a hunting licence to Uganda Savannah Hunting under Class A of the Wildlife Use Rights Policy.
Moreover, no hunting is allowed in the above-mentioned wildlife reserves or in any other protected area in Uganda so as to protect our slowly growing wildlife populations, which were hunted to near extinction in the 1970s and 1980s.
The only sport hunting activity legally taking place in Uganda is in the ranches neighbouring Lake Mburo National Park (LMNP) under a pilot program that is aimed at preserving wildlife populations while ensuring that communities neighbouring the national park are able to get direct financial benefits from protecting the animals.
The pilot project was necessary because whenever wild animals strayed to private lands neighbouring the park, irritated ranch owners would invite poachers to kill them so as to reduce competition for pasture and water with their cattle.
But since the launch of the sport-hunting program in 2001 wildlife populations in LMNP have considerably risen because the communities are now jealously protecting them since they are financially benefiting from the animals.
UGANDA SAVANNAH HUNTING HAS NEVER APPLIED FOR A HUNTING LICENSE, AND HAS THEREFORE NEVER ACQUIRED ONE. ANYONE WHO DEALS WITH THEM DOES SO AT HIS/HER OWN PERIL, AND COULD RISK ARREST.