JANE GOODALL CALLS NGAMBA ISLAND AFRICA’S BEST SANCTUARY
(Posted 21st January 2014)
Jane Goodall, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and UN Peace Ambassador, on her 80th birthday, while visiting Ngamba, pronounced Uganda’s sole chimpanzee refuge as the best there is, not a mean feat considering that there are another 28 such primate sanctuaries on the continent of Africa, located in Kenya, Tanzania, DR Congo, Sudan and Rwanda among others.
Lilly Ajarova, the Executive Director of Ngamba Island, was quoted as having expressed her delight for the unexpected honours, but those who have visited the island, just half an hour by boat off the Entebbe Jetty, which is near the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre, cannot but agree with the rating and ranking Ngamba has now received from the world’s foremost expert in chimpanzee conservation.
Good news for Ngamba and good news for Uganda’s tourism industry which is presently showing signs of an uncertain future vis a vis growth prospects, attributed by some to a ‘low season’ while others claim the country does not invest enough money in marketing The Pearl of Africa abroad.
There are some indications that the forthcoming 2014/15 budget may finally allocate greater resources to the tourism marketing and the sector overall, but these are mere rumours at present and only when the annual budget is being read in a few weeks time can one be certain that this will indeed be so.
Meanwhile congratulations to Lilly and her team on Ngamba for a sterling job in looking after ‘homeless chimps’.
