UWA’S SEGUYA ANNOUNCES REVIEW OF WILDLIFE ACT TO DETER POACHING
(Posted 11th July 2015)
The Executive Director of the Uganda Wildlife Authority, Dr. Andrew Seguya, earlier in the week, when launching an IIED report on the impact of poaching in Uganda, announced that the current version of the Wildlife Act is being reviewed with the aim to inflict higher fines and longer jail terms on poachers and traders in illicit wildlife products.
According to Dr. Seguya will the level of fines be raised to Uganda Shillings 200 million while jail terms will be raised to 20 years, once found guilty in a court of law of poaching, possession of ivory, rhino horn and other wildlife products in demand in Asia, trading or facilitating illegal transactions.
He further mentioned that vehicles uses in transporting for instance blood ivory, or warehouses used to store the contraband, will under the new law be forfeited to the state once convictions have been secured.
UWA’s home minister, the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Heritage, is currently engaged in pushing for amendments of the law and can hopefully succeed with the changes before the current term of parliament expires ahead of the 2016 general elections.
Uganda’s poaching figures are among the lowest in the region, with much of what is being recorded termed as subsistence poaching though the country has been increasingly used as a transit route for blood ivory from Eastern Congo and the South Sudan.
Find more details about the range of national parks and national reserves managed by the Uganda Wildlife Authority via www.ugandawildlife.org
