Diana Museveni decries rapid loss of Chimpanzees in Africa

By Sadique Bamwita

Entebbe

The newly appointed patron of Chimpanzee trust Sanctuary , Ms. Diana Museveni Kyaremera has decried the rapid loss of Chimpanzees across the African continent and commended Dr. Jane Goodall for spearheading the campaign aimed at conserving chimpanzees. Ms Diana Museveni replaces her mum the first Lady Janet Museveni, who has been the patron for Chimpanzee trust for the last 20 years. She raised her concern at Ngamba Island during  the commemoration of World chimpanzee day celebrated every year on 14th July. 

Ms. Diana Museveni said it’s now 64 years since the world started to mark chimpanzee day, and hailed Dr. Jane Goodall for her tireless efforts in raising awareness on chimpanzee species, in addition to improving their welfare in the wild and captivity.

Ms. Diana Museveni noted that the International Union for Conservation of Nature has classified chimpanzees as the most endangered species across the globe.

“The declining number of chimpanzees is a big concern to us. Remember 100 years ago, chimpanzees were between 1-2milliion across 25 countries on the African continent. Today there are less than 350,000 chimps across the African continent.  While globally their population is above 500,000 chimps, “said Ms.Diana Museveni.

She said the increase in human population has escalated loss of habitat for chimps as humans continue to cut down forests for Agriculture and timber which has led to decline in number of chimpanzees across the African continent.

She added that poaching and illegal trafficking of infants have compounded the problem.

“Poaching is another threat for the survival of chimps and also illegal trafficking of infant chimps as pets for sale of live animals headed to zoos across the world.”

Ms Diana Museveni explained that the best way to conserve wild animals is to invest heavily in eco-tourism.

“Our tourism sector accounts for 7.6%  of the Gross Domestic product(GDP) and 7.6% of our employment. Our wildlife is our best tourism product and the more we invest in our tourism the more foreign exchange the country earns and the more vested interest we will have to conserve our wildlife,” Ms. Diana Museveni revealed.

The Chairman of Board of Chimpanzee Trust, Dr. James Musinguzi said the major challenge to conserving chimps is the heavy cost of feeding them and looking after their welfare.

“The drugs we use to treat the chimps are not in the country and we have to import them abroad. Chimpanzees cost quite a lot in terms of feeding them and also maintaining their welfare, ” Dr. James Musinguzi expressed concern.

The Executive Director Chimpanzee Trust sanctuary, Dr. Joshua Rukundo , said as a chimpanzee Trust they are ready to work with their new patron Ms. Diana Museveni who succeeded her mum the first Lady Janet Kataha Museveni. 

He also revealed that as a way of creating awareness about Chimpanzee Trust they have launched a new log to enable people to understand more about the organization.