Gorillas atop as Uganda’s Biggest Tourism Foreign Exchange Earners, Hints Minister

Gorilla Tourism has once again topped Uganda’s foreign exchange earners. Speaking on Wednesday at the Uganda Media Center in Kampala ahead of the second Congress of the African Primatological Society (APS) to be held September 3-5, the tourism minister Ephraim Kamuntu said that Uganda’s tourism is the top foreign exchange earner bringing in US$1.4 billion ahead of remittances adding that the sector is nature-based which translates that it flourishes on wildlife like Mountain Gorillas.

The minister further commented that Uganda used to thrive on incomes from the three Cs (Coffee, Cotton and Copper). “Not anymore,” according to Kamuntu, adding that tourism employs 8% of Uganda’s labor force which he estimated at one million.

Kamuntu described Uganda as a country gifted by nature because it is where the East African savanna encounters the tropical rain forests which forests are homes to wildlife like gorillas. It also has the rift valleys and lakes as well as the great Nile.

These conditions have all largely contributed to the survival of Mountain gorillas in Uganda. Tourists who come for gorilla tracking in Uganda pay about US$800 each for a gorilla tracking permit. Around 20,000 tourists visit Uganda per annum to track gorillas. This has seen mountain gorillas top the list as the biggest tourism foreign exchange earners.

Uganda is one of the only three countries that host the mountain gorillas. These great apes are endemic to Africa and live in two separate habitats; Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and the Virunga Mountains, a trans-boundary protected area that spreads through Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

It is estimated that almost a half of the world Mountain Gorillas population is protected in Uganda’s conservation areas of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park in the southwest. The rest of the gorilla population is found in the Volcanoes National Park of Rwanda and Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The endangered (listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List) and highly protected primates are the biggest foreign exchange earners to the coffers of Uganda Wildlife Authority, contributing up to 60% of the national revenue.

The African Primatological Society (APS) is expecting 200 primatologists from Africa, non-African researchers and conservationist from across Africa and other parts of the world.