Lessons learnt from 20 years of revenue sharing at Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda

Abstract

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is one of the prime protected areas in Uganda, famous for its mountain gorilla families that have been habituated to allow gorillatracking safaris. A revenue sharing (RS) scheme was established in 1995 through which 20 per cent of the park’s revenue was shared with park-adjacent communities. The objective of revenue sharing is to provide local communities with an incentive to support conservation, particularly when they might be adversely impacted for example through having their crops raided by wild animals. Revenue tends to be distributed as grants for projects. Uganda Wildlife Authority has national revenue-sharing guidelines applicable to all its parks and, building on these guidelines, is currently developing a formal revenuesharing regulation. During 2016 a learning evaluation based on 20 years of revenue sharing was carried out among communities surrounding Bwindi, with a view to strengthening the implementation of the revenue sharing and enabling it to become more effective and more equitable. The findings would also help inform the ongoing process of developing a national revenuesharing regulation. In addition, it was intended for the research to have global value, influencing conservation-related revenue-sharing policy and practice at other sites of great ape conservation within Africa and beyond.