The organisations opened the exhibition yesterday at the Uganda National Museum. The exhibition, targeting the public and conservation organisations will go on until September 26. The executive director of UWA, Mr Moses Mapesa Wafula said the aim of the exhibition is to raise the profile of Apes in Uganda through public awareness of their value, status, current threats and conservation initiatives.
He encouraged the public to come and appreciate the revealations of the great apes and learn more about them. He was speaking at the 21st International Primatological Congress in Entebbe. The conference, with the theme “Primate Conservation in Action”, is the first of its kind in Uganda.
The congress attracted over 100 primatologists around the world. Uganda has 18 species of non-human primates which sums up to approx 31% of the African total. Mapesa said there are 700 mountain Gorillas in the world and half of them are found in Uganda. “Uganda is also blessed with a total of 5,000 chimpanzees,” he said.
He said apes were faced with extinction due to massive deforestation, the animals’ vulnerability to nature and disease. The World Chart as of great Apes and their Conservation (2005) shows that approximately 910 square kilometres of forests in Uganda are cleared annually for farmland, mining, charcoal burning and timber.
BY Tanah Hadijah
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