Uganda Key Biodiversity Areas: Mapping the Ground the Country Cannot Lose

Conservation almost never has sufficient funding or time. The more pressing question, therefore, is which places a nation cannot afford to lose.

A recent study sought to resolve that question for Uganda, a country that is both among Africa’s most densely populated and among its most biologically diverse.

Its researchers charted the remaining locations of threatened plants and animals before determining which sites are most vital to their survival.

A nation abundant in wildlife

Uganda contains an exceptional variety of life within a relatively small territory. It places eighth for biodiversity among Africa’s 54 countries, while possessing the continent’s greatest species richness per unit area.

The country is home to 1,742 recorded terrestrial vertebrate species, including over half of Africa’s bird species.

It also has at least 4,816 plant species, about 1,300 butterfly species and 260 dragonfly species.

Decades of continuing decline

This natural wealth has been diminishing for decades.

From 1975 to 1995, hunting and the conversion of forest, savanna and wetland caused Uganda to lose approximately half of its biodiversity value.

Since the 1930s, the human population has risen by two to three percent annually and has now reached nearly 35 million.

As more people occupied the land, several large mammals disappeared entirely, among them the black rhinoceros, white rhinoceros and oryx.

African wild dogs and cheetahs have not fared much better: each is now believed to have fewer than 25 individuals remaining in the entire country.

Mapping the places that remain important

To identify the most significant locations, the team compiled decades of survey data covering mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and plants.

Specialists used forest survey data from the 1990s, together with later years of field research.

Much of this information was supplied by the Wildlife Conservation Society and records held by Makerere University.

Each species was linked to the national parks or natural habitat fragments in which it had genuinely been recorded.

Uganda Key Biodiversity Areas the world should recognise

The researchers next used the Global Standard for identifying Key Biodiversity Areas, sites that support globally important populations of threatened or geographically restricted species.

They identified 36 terrestrial Key Biodiversity Areas in Uganda, ranging from Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, home to eastern gorillas, to small reserves that protect uncommon shrews and trees.

Nine freshwater locations around Lake Victoria, evaluated by the IUCN, brought the overall number to 45.

New sites deserving protection

Twenty-three of Uganda’s current Important Bird Areas satisfied the updated Key Biodiversity Area criteria.

The research also identified 13 new sites, many of which were prompted by plants, amphibians or mammals overlooked in earlier assessments.

Twelve of the 36 terrestrial sites fall outside protected areas. A substantial proportion of Uganda’s most important land therefore has no formal protection whatsoever.

Identifying irreplaceable land

Using a conservation planning tool known as Marxan, the team selected the smallest collection of sites capable of retaining every threatened species and habitat.

When the analysis was run 100 times, it repeatedly selected the same areas.

Protected areas in the western Albertine Rift were the most difficult to replace, as were the northern woodlands of Acholiland and southern Karamoja’s savannas.

A large share of this land sits outside park boundaries, where livestock are grazed but indigenous plants and animals continue to persist.

Directing conservation funding

Combined, Key Biodiversity Areas and irreplaceable sites account for about 14.9 percent of Uganda, marginally below the international target of 17 percent.

However, many of the places with the greatest value receive insufficient funding or lack protection entirely.

Eleven forest reserves, alongside a series of unprotected sites, have the most urgent need for support. Several contain endemic aloes and cycads that occur nowhere else.

“Evaluating how spend may achieve different results in a return on investment framework forces conservation practitioners to be much clearer about what they actually hope to achieve,” said Dr. Andrew Plumptre, who led the study.

“Most species plans do not identify what they really aim to achieve and as a result cannot allocate funds optimally.”

Pressures that continue to intensify

The strain on these places is not diminishing. Rapid population growth, increasing demand for agricultural land, and an emerging mining and oil sector are all reducing the natural habitat that remains.

East Madi Wildlife Reserve, identified by the study as irreplaceable, has already experienced extensive settlement and degradation.

Where major development projects proceed, the authors maintain that companies should first avoid Key Biodiversity Areas, using offsets for impacts only as a final measure.

A plan that needs updating

The researchers view their map as a snapshot, not a definitive conclusion.

Further sites are likely to meet the criteria as new species are described and additional plant and animal groups receive formal assessments.

The plan will require revision if protected areas continue to be lost or degraded.

For the present, the study provides Uganda with something it previously lacked: a clear view of the land that still contains the country’s remaining stores of wildlife.