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Animals, plants at risk from mining and hunting around the Albertine Rift

Wednesday March 21 2018
hoima

The road connecting Hoima town to the proposed Kaiso Tonya refinery in Uganda. Mining of oil, natural gas and other minerals is emerging as a new threat to the region’s biodiversity. PHOTO | MORGAN MBABAZI | NATION

By KENNEDY SENELWA

The Albertine Rift, which covers the northern end of Lake Albert to the southern tip of Lake Tanganyika — traversing five countries — is losing its rich biodiversity as demand for agricultural land continues to reduce habitats of various species.

Scientists say the demand for land to grow food is reducing habitats in western Uganda, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and western Tanzania.

Further, mining of oil, natural gas and other minerals is emerging as a new threat to the region’s biodiversity, with exploration concessions in all the five countries, some of which lie inside existing protected areas like national parks.

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has flagged the logging for timber and charcoal, fragmentation that creates small islands of forests, invasive plant species and diseases affecting primates and eventual transmission to domestic livestock.

“The changes in climate will significantly impact the distribution and abundance of species, depending on their traits and vulnerability to climate change,” said Andy Plumptre a scientist at the WCS.

The Albertine Rift is home to mountain and Grauer’s gorillas, golden monkeys, chimpanzees, elephants, 162 vertebrate and 350 plant species unique to the region.

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Realistic threat

Forests in the Albertine Rift region are under pressure due to high population growth as some areas carry over 1,000 people per square kilometre, making loss of habitat a realistic threat for most of the species.

Sam Ayebare, a WCS Uganda conservationist, said that expansion of agricultural areas up the slopes of the rugged Albertine Rift region will cause a 75 per cent reduction in suitable habitat for the native animal and plant species.

“We predict that by the end of this century, endemic species will further decline in response to climate change as many of these species will need to move to higher elevations as the climate warms,” he said.

The 313,000 km2 region contains more than 50 per cent of Africa’s bird species and 40 per cent of the continent’s mammals. It is also home to about 20 per of Africa’s plants and amphibians.

Further, the Albertine Rift region contains 14 per cent of the continent’s reptiles and 16 per cent of its butterflies. At least 11 per cent of the fish diversity is found in Lake Tanganyika with 89 per cent of species endemic to the water mass.

The WCS is working with conservation authorities — Uganda Wildlife Authority, National Forest Authority of Uganda, Rwanda Development Board, Tanzania National Parks, DRC’s Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature and Burundi’s Institut National pour l’Environnement et Conservation de la Nature, to combat the threats.

The five key threats are bush meat hunting, impact of diseases on wildlife, conversion of the natural habitat to agriculture, degradation of habitats through human activities, and incompatible fishing methods.

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