Mount-Elgon-Nationalpark

IUCN Category II - National Park

BWf1

The Mount Elgon National Park is a national park 140 km northeast of Lake Victoria near the town of Mbale on the border between Uganda and Kenya. The park covers a total area of ​​1279 km ², of which 1110 km ² in Uganda and 169 km ² in Kenya are located. It is located at 2336-4321 m above sea level. Highest point and is named after the extinct volcano Mount Elgon. Some of the summits lie in Kenya; from there it is also known that elephants and other animals come from far away to eat in the lava caves salty earth.

A mosaic of grassland, swamps, bogs and mountain rainforest shapes the character of this landscape. The annual rainfall is about 1200 mm.

In the Mount Elgon National Park is home to leopards, eland, buffalo, bushbuck and giant forest hogs. There is also a small elephant stock. This was given in 1973 with 500 and 1977 with 1,000 copies, but in 1987 there were only 200 animals. The elephants are quite shy. Their traces can be found in the great caves of the mountain, where they receive every few days minerals.

Criticism

At its founding, some 30,000 Sabiny were forcibly relocated ( an ethnic group in this region ) in the so-called wet - resettlement area. The first shipment from the national park area on this resettlement area was done in 1983 and was only " partially successful " - a considerable part of Sabiny eluded the relocation and remained in the National Park. The evacuees, the government only the bare land available. Starting aids such as building materials, agricultural tools, seeds or similar was not commanded them. For a second resettlement wave came in 1992 when the people at gunpoint were forced to leave the National Park. In the course of this criminal action people were beaten, there were numerous injuries and rape, the cattle of the Sabiny were slaughtered, their homes were set on fire. That's not all: In the course of this expulsion, the size of 1983 provided resettlement area of ​​the Uganda Wildlife Authority ( UWA ) has been reviewed and reduced from 7,500 to 6,000 acres. That is overnight lost about 6,000 people who had used more than ten years later, to cultivate their allocated land, again their livelihoods. Again, they were to " intruders " and unwanted settlers. Further shifts in the boundaries of the relocation area at the expense of Sabiny made ​​in 2002 and 2004. At the same time UWA rangers stricter enforcement of the national park laws used after the end of political unrest in Uganda. People who lived outside the redrawn boundaries of the relocation area, constant threats, harassment and physical attacks exposed by the UWA rangers, to the rape wood collecting women. From the relative political tranquility that reigns in Uganda for several years, the indigenous people of this region do not benefit. EU, World Bank and the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ ) are accused, through their continuing education seminars for employees of the Ugandan forest and wildlife authorities, the responsibility in the expulsion of more than 130 000 people in Uganda.