conservation of elephants in southern murchison falls ... · the park. it is thought this group may...

conservation through action

Progress Report to

International Elephant Foundation

May 2014

Conservation of Elephants in Southern Murchison Falls

Conservation Area, Uganda

A Partnership between the Uganda Conservation Foundation and Uganda Wildlife Authority

Conservation through action

Brief summary

Poaching in MFCA has been extreme and includes heavily armed gangs

targeting elephants and large scale commercial gain, as well as the high

volume of indiscriminate bush meat poaching using snares and traps. The

poachers have taken advantage of the limited resources and capacity of

Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) to enforce the law. Alongside UWA, UCF

developed a strategy to regain control in key areas of Murchison Falls

Conservation Area (MFCA) to counter poaching. The conservation of

elephants in southern MFCA project aims at:

• Establish control the Bulaya River Region in south eastern MFCA.

• Establish intelligence led law enforcement in southern MFCA

• Better understand and manage the southern MFCA elephant population

.


Location of Bulaya RP in Murchison

Falls Conservation Area

Mupina

RP Bulaya

RP


Bulaya ranger post

UCF completed the

construction and installation

of Bulaya and Mupina

Ranger Posts in southern

MFCA. Both ranger posts

have been made from two

converted shipping

containers placed 5meters

from each other and roofed

with iron sheets. The

containers were acquired

from Ortec Ltd from their

work base station in Hoima

and transported to MFCA.

The container base construction and container

installation was done by Keltron Ltd, a

reputable fabrication company in Uganda. The

two ranger posts are partitioned to

accommodate up to 8 rangers.


Bulaya ranger post operational

Four rangers were deployed at

Bulaya RP permanently and

since then (January 2014)

patrols have been conducted

and poaching items recovered.

Conservation Area Manager,

MFCA Tom Okello says, ‘it is

the first time UWA is having

robust operations in the

southern of MFCA. So far 28

patrols were conducted (8

extended, 6 ambushes and 14

round) which led to a large

scale sweep of the existing

snares and metal traps

resulting in collection of 103

snares and 12 metal traps”.

Above is a warthog killed by metal trap

in Bulaya area, southern MFCA.


Destroying poacher camps in

southern MFCA

20 poacher camps have been

destroyed in southern MF since

January 2014 when permanent

rangers were stationed at Bulaya

and Mupina ranger posts.


Welcome to WILD LEO

Knowing that most protected areas suffer from a lack of manpower and

capacity to implement conservation programs, UCF supported WILD LEO

project in MFCA to improve the capacity building of UWA law enforcement

rangers.

A select team of rangers received Wildlife Intelligence and Leadership

Development (WILD) training that has been specially designed for Law

Enforcement Officers (LEOs).

The main goals of WILD LEO project are:

To provide ranger commanders with precise information about patrol

coverage and the location of illegal activity.

To provide prosecutors with better courtroom evidence to increase the

likelihood that poachers and other criminals will be convicted.

To collect photographic evidence that better describes the nature of

criminal activity inside Uganda’s protected areas.


WILD LEO

WILD LEO training was conducted by Dr. Andrew Lemieux, an American

criminologist teaching at Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law

Enforcement. The WILD LEO uses advanced intelligence gathering and

analysis techniques to study and prevent criminal activity in Uganda’s

protected Areas using hybrid geo-location cameras with a GPS unit. This

gives UWA law enforcement commanders added information for making

informed deployment decisions. In essence, the project encourages

intelligence-led patrolling, whereby analysis of: monthly patrol coverage,

wildlife animals distribution data, and illegal activity observations are used to

direct patrols. Additionally, the project provides management with up-to-date

and visual information about the problems inside a protected area.


Example of WILD LEO Data Output

from GPS Camera

Geo-Location cameras record

when and where photographs

were taken; this is used to map

the distribution of wildlife animals,

illegals activities and poachers

observed by ranger patrols. When

suspects are arrested, the geo-

tagged photos, and video

statements recorded on the

camera, provide prosecutors with

robust evidence and increase the

likelihood of conviction. On a

monthly and quarterly basis,

intelligence reports showing the

location of illegal activity, such as

the location of poacher camps, are

shared with UWA managers to

help guide deployments.


WILD LEO Equipment and training

Crime analysts taking lessons

Patrick of UCF handing over Geo-location

cameras to warden LE, MFCA

MFCA WILD

LEO trained

rangers

WILD LEO lessons


WILD LEO training

The photos of illegal

activity and GPS logs of

patrol movements are

used by ranger

commanders to make

deployment decisions and

prosecution teams as

evidence in court.

50 rangers have been

trained in the use of

hybrid geo-location

cameras. Among, were

two crime analysts and

two prosecutors. The

training were

conducted at Mubako,

Paraa and Karuma

ranger posts in MFCA.

17 geo-location cameras plus 5

normal cameras were provided to

MFCA by UCF plus one desk top

computer.


Elephants in South MFCA

Over the past 2 years, MIKE aerial surveys have not seen elephants in the

south MFCA. However, different groups of people have sighted elephants in

the south MFCA.

In December 2013, a herd of elephants were sighted in Sambiya river area

and they remained near the top of the falls until mid-January, 2014.

Another group of six bull elephants came from Rabongo forest up to

Mubako UWA HQ in February 2014 and remained in the area up to the

end of March.

In charge of Rabongo forest ranger post confirmed to us that a group of

about 30 elephants have been roaming the area since February.

In the very south of MFCA, a bond group has been recorded well outside

the park. It is thought this group may be the group translocated from the

Bulemezi community area 80 km south of Murchison Falls National park in

1995, but now largely resident in MFCA and always traverse Rabongo

forest area and Budongo forest.


Elephants in South MFCA

Rangers based at Karuma mentioned that they usually encounter two

herds’ of elephants in the range of 20 and 30 during December-March

season. February this year a group of 5 bulls from the herd crossed from

Karuma wildlife reserve moved 35 km deep inside the community area

raiding the crops.

Overall it is already clear that the once reclusive population is far more

widely distributed than thought suggesting that the assumed semi-

permanent aggregations that they were once in has broken up into distinct

groups. A question that remains is whether they will follow movement

patterns once well described in the 1970s.

Ranger training in elephant data collection was done at Mubako and data

collecting sheets on south MFCA elephant habitat and seasonal

distribution has been distributed to ranger posts of Mubako, Mupina,

Bulaya, Rabongo, Karuma and Wairingo. The data collection sheet

consists: date, area, site coordinates, evidence of elephants, number,

males, females (young, old) and other remarks.

conservation of elephants in southern murchison falls ... · the park. it is thought this group may...

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