by Ronald Ssekandi
MASINDI, Uganda, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Equipped with a computer tablet, Fredrick Oddu together with a group of nine other youths in his village head out for patrol to parts of neighboring Budongo Forest in mid-western Uganda.
It is an assignment these youths of Kapeeka village in Masindi district carry out twice a week and sometimes do spot patrols to ensure that the habitat of Chimpanzees is protected.
Several villages neighboring Budongo Forest, one of the biggest homes to Chimpanzees in Uganda, have similar patrol teams armed with smartphones or computer tablets.
In the forest, Oddu together with his team take pictures and the Global Positioning System coordinates are recorded in case they find illegal loggers or a hurt chimpanzee. Sometimes poachers put snares in the forest which end up hurting and at times kills chimpanzees.
The smart phones and computer tablets use two applications, Forest Watcher and Open Data Kit to send information to a central database where it is analyzed by experts and acted upon.
The Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) which mans the data, shares it with Uganda Wildlife Authority, a state agency charged with protection of wild animals and the National Forest Authority (NFA), a government agency that protects forests.
JGI is an international non-governmental organization spearheading the conservation of chimpanzees in Uganda.
The Forest Watcher application uses Google Earth to detect whether a tree or trees in the forest have been cut. If it shows a reduction in the canopy cover, the authorities send out the patrol teams to confirm.
The Open Data Kit is used to collect data for research regarding behavioral change of chimpanzees, community behaviors among others.
The state agencies, like NFA have armed patrol teams which beef up the village teams in case they report hostile poachers or illegal loggers.
Oddu's team has so far arrested four illegal loggers and handed them to the authorities in the last two months. They believe that with time, poaching and illegal logging of trees will stop and thus save the chimpanzee habitat.
They argue that the community has now a changed attitude towards chimpanzees.
THREAT LEVELS
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) considers chimpanzees as endangered due to poaching, expanding logging and agricultural activities.
Figures by JGI show that Uganda is home to 22 different communities of wild chimpanzees totaling approximately 5,000 individuals.
In Budongo forest, the human-chimpanzee conflict had reached a crisis point. Some incidents have ended up being fatal, according to Robert Atugonza, a researcher in the area.
In one of the incidents, he said, a woman went to her garden neighboring the forest. She put her baby down not knowing the chimpanzees were observing her.
"They came and snatched the baby away and ran to the forest. The woman made an alarm and the community gathered. "
The community members threw stones and sticks to the chimpanzees high up in the tree branches. Irritated by the human action, the chimpanzees released the baby, it fell down and died.
In another incident, a group of women went to fetch water at a village well. The women were accompanied by dogs. The chimpanzees had also come to the water source to eat fruits on nearby trees.
Irritated by the dogs' barking, the chimpanzees chased the women and ended up grabbing a nine year old girl.
The girl was rescued by a group of village men who scared away the chimpanzees.
JGI says there is increased human-chimpanzee conflict even in areas like Budongo because the humans have destroyed the chimpanzee habitats.
The institution says communities have turned the forest land into sugar cane plantations. In the remaining forests, they have also destroyed some trees that bare fruits that chimpanzees love most.
In this case the chimpanzees come out to the communities to eat the sugar cane and some fruits like pawpaw.
In retaliation, some community members injure or kill chimpanzees.
OTHER CONSERVATION MEASURES
Beside the digital solutions, communities' livelihood has been improved by encouraging them to engage in other income generating activities like bee keeping.
This is aimed at discouraging them from looking at the forest as their source of livelihood.
Arii Emili, 51 years old, used to go deep into the forest to look for honey. It is a practice he inherited from his grandfather who also learnt it from his ancestors.
After sensitization from nongovernmental organizations about chimpanzee conservation, Emili left the forest and resorted to beekeeping.
He told Xinhua in a recent interview that out of beekeeping, his household income has been supplemented. He does crop farming and also has a nursery of trees which he sells.
"The income I get out of all these activities, I use it to pay school fees for my three children, pay medical bills in case a family member gets sick," Emili said.
Emili is not alone, other village mates have also been empowered to improve their livelihood instead of depending on the forest.
In neighboring schools, pupils are taught about the importance of conserving the chimpanzees.
Steven Oliki, Head Teacher of Budongo Sawmill Primary School, said that it is important to teach children about chimpanzee conservation so that when they go back home they tell their parents the importance of the apes to the community.
