A group of women showcasing the traditional foods on April 12 ,2024 at Purongo Cultural Centre during the launch of community based tourism. Photos by Simon Wokorach
By Simon Wokorach
Nwoya: The Chief Warden for Murchison Falls National Park, Wilson Kagoro, has challenged the communities neighboring Murchison Falls Park to form cooperatives to support community-based tourism.
Kagoro noted that once the community forms cooperatives, they will have a stronger bargaining power to promote cultural tourism.
He explained that tourists who travel to Uganda are not only interested in wildlife but culture which the Acholi have not taken advantage of.
“Those visitors are interested in traditional dances, foods, and crafts and they will leave money here, but only when the people here are organized,” Kagoro said.
The advice came when the Nwoya district local government was launching an initiative for the community to use culture to complement nature-based tourism and conservation of wildlife species.
During the launch of the initiative at Purongo Cultural Centre in Nwoya district, the Chief Administrative Officer, Jennifer Nantume, noted that the concept was meant to sensitize the locals on how they can conserve wildlife and benefit from it.
“We sold this concept to Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) for partnership and we want to thank that Gen. Salim Saleh was able to support the process of this community-based tourism,” said Nantume.
The tourism sector contributes 3.64% to the direct Gross Domestic Product and employs 1.8 million people, translating to 14.7% of the total number of jobs, according to a 2023 report by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics on the contribution of tourism in Uganda.
Hopes of reaping more
Nantume argued that through the initiative, the locals will showcase their traditional dances, foods, drama, and stories, among others to tourists who often visit Murchison.
“Prosperity and growth start with a mindset change and I want to challenge the people of Acholi to sustainably use their rich culture through tourism and make money from it,” she added.
The Nwoya District Tourism Officer, Filder Akech, is hopeful that the initiative will promote peaceful co-existence between people and wild animals, and reduce conflicts and poaching.
Natume noted that despite the legal instruments protecting wildlife species, poaching remains a challenge, affecting revenue sharing from the park.
“We have been receiving less money from revenue sharing but we think that once we conserve these animals, the revenue will increase which this initiative shall address,” she added.
From 2021 to 2023, Nwoya district received shs2.22bn as part of its revenue-sharing from Murchison Falls. The money was used to rehabilitate roads, and schools, and construct a Cultural Centre among others.
Walter Odokorwot, the Executive Director of Umoja Conservancies of Uganda, a local conservation agency noted that there is a need to train the communities around the protected areas on how to co-exist with the animals and benefit from them through community-based tourism.
Odokorwot noted that if the community protected the animals on their private land, hunting grounds, and animal corridors, tourists would travel to and pay money directly to them.
Instead of getting 20% of revenue from a tourist, the locals can get 100% share from the tourists, which will significantly improve their livelihoods.
“We are looking at the community who will in the long run begin to conserve those animals on their private lands and we need to put the land use in that manner that supports both farming and conservation.”
Locals speak
A section of the community members testified that they are optimistic that their livelihood will improve because of the initiative.
Geoffrey Okello, the chairperson of Lubanga Miyo Arts and Craft Association in Got Apwoya Sub County, hopes to get more buyers for his products unlike before.
Christine Ajok, a resident of Lyec Cam village in Purongo Town Council, has been selling traditional foods to travelers and said she wants to position herself in an organized women’s group to supply traditional foods to the visitors in the Cultural Centre.
Raising budgetary constraints
On April 11, 2024, the Members of Parliament while responding to the Ministerial Policy Statement of the Committee on Tourism, Trade and Industry that was adopted during plenary raised concerns about the under-budgeting of the tourism sector despite its significant contributions.
The committee noted that the National Development Plan III, which targeted 281,760 international tourist arrivals from America, Europe, and China only registered 67,252 arrivals by the end of the first half of the financial year 2023/2024 in the report that was presented to the Parliament.
The Omoro District Woman Member of Parliament and the committee’s deputy chairperson Catherine Lamwaka who presented the report noted that, whereas the Uganda Tourism Board requires shs4b to promote the country’s image, it was never prioritized in the 2024/2025 financial year national budget.
The committee, however, tasked the government to provide shs4b to the Uganda Tourism Board to engage international and national media houses in the production of positive media stories for improved destination image to improve arrivals and the country’s foreign exchange.
The tourism sector continues to aggressively recover from COVID-19 economic shocks, with international receipts reaching 48.5%, according to the March 2024 report by the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities.
