In Uganda, the creation of a national park comes at the expense of an indigenous people

At the start, there is an exceptional natural site. Mount Elgon, an extinct volcano, on the border between Uganda and Kenya, the fourth peak in East Africa and eighth on the continent. The old caldera forms a 80-kilometer-wide plateau and rises more than 3,000 meters above the plains.

At the end of the 20th century, Kenya and Uganda decided to make this mountain top plateau a nature conservation area. An area of ​​over 1,200 km², cross-border, most of which is located in Uganda. In particular, there are 300 species of birds. For this, the States have taken the decision to relocate and settle pastoral communities in the highlands, on either side of the massif, in Kenya as well as in Uganda. The displacement gives these populations of “hunter-gatherers” the feeling of having been marginalized in “agricultural subdivisions”.

In 1993, the nature reserve became Mount Elgon National Park. But this led to the total eviction of the residents, the Benets, from the high altitude forests and moors on the Ugandan slope where they lived. These indigenous people have been moved below, into the forest. There, they largely deforested (7,500 hectares) to devote themselves now to intensive agriculture, especially corn, without ever replanting a tree.

However, after 1993, some still lived inside the park, refusing to be moved. In 2008, the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), the managing body, expelled 200 families from the park under the protection of nature. They are relocated to new lands, below the mountain. They were originally supposed to stay there for six months. “13 years later, they (the Benets) still live in frail huts made of cob and pieces of wood, which were to be a temporary relocation solution, and are deprived of essential services such as access to drinking water , electricity, health care and education “, explains Deprose Muchena, director of the East and Southern Africa program at Amnesty International.

Today, the Benets want the Ugandan state to recognize them as the indigenous inhabitants, and allow them to return to their territory. Amnesty International supports them. “Academic research shows that the effects of conservation are greatest when indigenous peoples are equal partners in conservation.”, explains Deprose Muchena. In 2016, President Museveni appointed an ad hoc commission to investigate these land disputes. But the final report of this commission has still not been made public.