UWA is exposing Uganda’s integrity to risk, ridicule!
SIR — After two decades of conducting chimpanzee research and promoting eco-tourism in Kibale National Park, I have acquired great admiration for the morality and vision of Uganda and its people. So it is with sadness that I see the controversy over the request from China for three chimpanzees. The Ugandan Wildlife Authority (UWA) says the question of sending chimpanzees to China is a decision for Uganda rather than her friends and advisors, especially when future economic, political and cultural alliances with China lie in the balance. Of course. But there remains a problem. Despite claims that the fate of three chimpanzees is “a small matter in all conscience,” as the UWA chairman, John Nagenda would have the world believe, it is actually Uganda’s stature as a world leader in wildlife conservation and welfare that is at risk. Uganda has enormous respect as a leader of wildlife conservation and welfare. If the chimps are treated as political objects, in the eyes of many that moral leadership will be lost. And that doesn’t seem such a small matter. Uganda has the finest record of ape conservation and care in the world. Her reputation brings tourists wanting to see both gorillas and chimpanzees, funds from donors supporting the orphan chimps, investment by NGOs and multi-lateral organisations, and invitations to host international conferences. All this could unravel if Uganda treats her apes as gifts of state to be distributed at will. Based on experience in other countries, there will be an international outcry. There will be fears of further export, or capture from the wild. Investors will likely scale down their funds, visitors will be fewer, and facility standards will be jeopardised. Welfare organisations cannot be expected to continue spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on Ngamba Island Sanctuary knowing that the apes whose lives they are improving may at any time be shipped off to a zoo. Uganda is less likely to be invited to host UN meetings concerned with conservation. We might feel that such pressure reeks of blackmail. But it would come from the grassroots. Many people around the world, and surely in Uganda also, feel passionately about the great apes because the more we learn, the more similar their minds seem to our own. To many people, exporting three chimps from a forest sanctuary would be an immoral act, almost like exporting three orphaned people. So how might Uganda honour her friendship with China, yet keep faith with the moral principles that have brought so much respect? Uganda’s people, rather than apes, offer a solution. China wants chimpanzees, but has little expertise about them. Uganda has much expertise, including not only field scientists but also vets skilled in ape care. Couldn’t UWA ask Ugandan PhDs and DVMs to help? Uganda’s national experts could contact zoos around the world with surplus chimpanzees, and facilitate a zoo-to-zoo transfer. They could help design a Chinese facility based on naturalistic principles, one that would respect the needs of the apes and thereby become the best chimpanzee sanctuary in China. Uganda has far more to offer than a trade in wildlife. Wouldn’t Uganda gain more by parading her people’s skills than by offering captive apes? This would be a move for the 21st century, to export expertise rather than animals. It would bring honour and admiration from around the world. Professor Richard Wrangham Department of Anthropology Harvard University Co-Chair, Great Ape World Heritage Species Project Published on: Friday, 30th January, 2004
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