Oil Exploitation Activities Shrinking Wildlife Diversity in Murchison Park, New Research

Recently; Tourists crossing Murchison Falls

By Abet Tonny

“Observed animals’ reactions included avoidance, migration and a few cases of death," reads the major findings of the research continuing that only some limited number of animals on very rare occasions was sighted near sites where oil wells have been drilled, suggesting that oil and gas exploration created unsuitable conditions in their natural habitat. 

The concern about the possible environmental impacts of the oil exploration and drilling activities taking place in the Albertine region of Uganda has been high among environmental scientists and naturalists from near and far. The interest being inspired by lessons from other countries where oil and gas exploitation has and is ongoing. Logically, the blessing of oil extraction often comes with sizable damage to the natural environment due to its invasiveness on land, forests and multitudes of inhabiting wild organisms like the guerrillas, antelopes and birds.

In 2018, three experienced Ugandan scientists: Pius Mbuyo and Lavine Awino with Elizabeth Diamond Kamara as the Lead researcher rolled out to discover the true reality. They were in for a quest to understand the impacts of oil and gas exploration on wildlife in the Albertine Rift species diversity hotspots within Murchison Falls National Park.

The data collection involved both direct observation at four different sites which were approximately 4 km apart and use of interview techniques to unveil the realities. According to the report, 140 respondents were interviewed. Their intriguing findings were recently published in a research report in the African Journal of Environment and Natural Science Research. 

Major highlights from the report

The largest portion of the locals interviewed -57%, were concerned that the visibly of wild animals reduced drastically during and after oil exploration. However, the other 35% of the respondents were rather happy that after the oil exploration and onset of drilling, some more animals have been attracted to the area thus raising the numbers of different animal species higher above the previous.

In their conclusion, “Maintaining the Conservation & Tourism Value of Protected Areas in Petroleum Development Zones of the Albertine Rift should be treated with great importance,” the scientists emphasized.

The oil and gas exploration in Uganda has reached the production phase. Yet it should be appreciated that the event is operational in an ecologically sensitive and biodiversity hotspot area -the Albertine Rift which houses the precious Murchison Falls National Park (MFNP).

A previous survey by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) showed that MFNP is one of the richest in species diversity of great economic importance. Of the valuable animal, bird, and species in MFNP, there are a number of them about to go extinct.

The last year 2018, the Uganda Bureau of Statistics revealed that Uganda received 1.8 million tourists in 2018, up from 1.4 million in 2017. In 2017, the 1.4 million arrivals injected about $1.4billion into the economy. Additionally, the sector contributes at least 592,500 jobs to the country’s nationals. Conservation and preservation of nature are the primary tools to guarantee the future of the tourism industry.

Naturalists, however, argue that the importance of nature should be viewed beyond the limited angle of economic return or tourism; but that the preservation of nature is a moral obligation that one generation secures the species diversity for the forthcoming one. But whether some activities of the ongoing lucrative oil and gas business should be limited for the sake of wild animals and plants is the never-ending debate issue.

Biodiversity and Pesticide; will there ever be a trade-off?

This writer of this article examines the global trend of pesticide usage and its heightening threat to biodiversity. And it ends with the proposition of a more pragmatic approach to quicken the drive to conserve the world's environment. The writer assumes that the reader understands the various forms of pesticide; the insecticide we use at home to those used in our gardens make part of pesticide.

December 2, 1984, is one of those dark days remembered in India, all because of pesticide. Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), American owned chemical manufacturer based in India threw into irreversible despair, the locals in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. The incident where supposed negligence from a Corporation employee led to the explosion of highly toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC) -a gas used in the manufacture of carbamate pesticide.

At least 40 tons of MIC gas was released into the atmosphere, a venomous gas that settled above as thick cloud covering over 78 square kilometers of India's Bhopal. Tragically, while in the atmosphere, the MIC gas would eventually turn into a severely lethal hydrogen cyanide gas. At least 5,100 people perished by the gas and over 50,000 more locals got permanently injured with blindness and lung damage.

The compensation for victims has not only been too low but not fully met either. Dow Chemical Company would later buy off UCC in 2001. The psychological and economic impacts of Bhopal disaster are still felt to date in India.

The global trend of pesticide 

Pesticides revolution started way back in 1939 when the German entomologist, Paul Muller discovered that DDT could actually be used as an insecticide. Muller's revelation would see DDT used in the second portion of World War II to control malaria and typhus among civilians and troops. And by the end of World War, DDT was available in several countries for sale as agricultural and household pesticide.

Since Muller's discovery, over 1,055 other pesticide ingredients have since been introduced by scientists into the world commerce.

The world is experiencing an unrelenting rise in the volume of pesticide manufactured and used. Agricultural production has been the major inducer and sustainer of this, besides the public health sector. FAO has some amazing visuals to illustrate the trend. The global pesticide market stood at $58.46 billion in 2015 and in 2017, BBC Research, estimated it at $61.2 billion projecting a terrifying rise to $79.3 billion by 2022. Several million tons of pesticide are thus expected to be thrown into the world's already hurting and helpless ecosystem. This pains the environmental activists but somehow they keep the fight on!

Aside from the lamentation, let's examine why pesticide has enjoyed this jolly ride amidst decades of outcry from naturalists and environmental activists for its terrible damages to the precious ecosystem.

Whether a product or service gains or loses dominance in any market system is always attributable to the extent by which its users feel the sense of satisfaction. Though possessing multiple flaws, the pesticide has built a powerful name for itself by consistently satisfying its users. Whether in killing fruit flies on watermelon crops in the garden or riding off the bedbugs in a home, the pesticide has always been handy with multiple varieties to choose from.

This brings us to the fundamental question, are the alternatives being offered in a logical confrontation of pesticides economically more viable and capable of out-competing its rival?  The answers will always waver. Organic repellants, pest vacuuming technology and other biological solution propositions by naturalists and environmental activists have arguably not made it to market dominance because of their low economic viability to attract large investments.

Let's briefly explore what the proponents of pesticide usage (PPU) have always believed.

"Pesticides are faster acting compared to most of the alternatives presented by pro-environment campaigners," argue the PPU as their primary stand. Perhaps you can weigh it, but I think it has some substance.

Secondly, the PPU says the synthetic pesticides have demonstrated unmatched value by preventing insect-transmitted diseases like malaria and sleeping sickness. Several million premature deaths from malaria have been prevented through indoor residual sprays. I leave this to your verification.

Thirdly, these proponents postulate that these pesticides have also increased food supplies and lowered food costs globally through stopping the crop-damaging pests. Crop pests destroy up to 55% of the world's potential human food. A lot to argue about here!

And finally, they back up their product saying, "Synthetic pesticides have also increased profits of the farmer," adding,  "a $1 investment in pesticide results in $4 yield in terms of harvest." There is a lot to argue about here.

From an unbiased point of view, a number of these claims from the PPU have logical and statistical evidence to back up. Pragmatically commenting, pulling down volumes of pesticide usage with scientific arguments will be slow.  I mean by showcasing dangers it has and is causing to our environment will achieve very slowly, the greatly yearned mass action to save the global environment. This is partly because, for decades, the world has used these "toxic" pesticides and somehow with the usual belief of "better with the devil you know than an angel you don't know," the global community is a bit so reluctant to learn newer and "safer" methods even as environmental activists pitch alarms.

We all appreciate the flip side of these pesticides. They do not only kill the target pests, but several millions of beneficial non-target organisms like bees and soil microbes are also destroyed annually from the pesticide sprays and fumigations. The pesticide residues directly consumed by a man from pesticide-treated or exposed fruits, vegetables, and grains account for multiple other cases of cancer, reproductive and neurological disorders entangling the current human population.

Scientists have been at the forefront talking about biodiversity and the matchless need to conserve nature, but with very limited success to showcase as the bulging pesticide market confirms. Yet, the much-desired global revolution or major reforms to protect the living environment of humanity should be handled as an emergency.

A more realistic proposition

I uphold the fight to conserve the environment, banning or posing a stronger restriction on pesticide usage should be conceived with centrality. But somehow, I still find myself restrained because the many alternatives to pesticides have a number of unanswered questions to address before one can confidently bank on. Questions about their boundless and mass applicability, and the economic viability can never be underrated. A class of people fears that banning or raising stronger restrictions on pesticide may worsen global food insecurity, public health problems and above all rural poverty.

Now, this is the point I'm driving home: better environmental safeguard will be faster and better achieved with a stronger moral/ethical proposition, but with a mild back up of scientific evidence. By moral proposition, I mean bringing humans to grasp ecocentrism where they appreciate that the environment is not only made for them to sap and devour but that they make part of it. In that those wild trees, birds, animals, rivers and oceans are equally so important to sustain each other as non-conflicting members of a divine system called an ecosystem. Use of dangerous pesticide, though cheap will thus mean they're destabilizing the rewarding system. Though it will take a little more cost, investing in environmentally friendly pest control approaches thus means securing the peace of the living environment we form part.

The moral or ethical proposition tables a win-win situation for both humans and the environment. For instance, linked to heightened pesticide use, the population of bees and other beneficial insects have drastically reduced and this is posing great threat to global crop yield and overall food security as the pollinators for our crops vanish.

With a moral proposition, programs and projects advocating for environmental protection will require religious, cultural and political leaders be brought to the center stage, in a multi-stakeholder approach along with scientists. A moral or ethical approach to environmental conservation is solely a trade-off between science and humanity. Scientists are excellent in their 'science' and these religious, cultural and religious leaders have carved unmatched history moving humanity to action. Perfectly good actions and extremely bad ones like genocide have always been made possible by and through these class of people.

There is also much that the developing world has been able to change or achieve through involving this class of people more closely. Fighting HIV in Africa had to employ much of their input for better statistical outcomes.

Communicating to cause 'change' is just as important as having the knowledge of why that 'change' is needed. Environmental scientists have much of the knowledge bit. The religious, cultural and political leaders have both the people (audience) and prowess in change communication.


Essay by Abet Tonny, a Ugandan science writer.

Was Anai saved by a Wolf? Uganda Climate Change Adaptation Story

Was Anai Saved by a Wolf?

Photo Credit: ironage.info

Over sixty percent of forest cover vanished and 10% of arable soil lost in the last 20 years. The community of Anai embraced brick-making as major source of livelihood abandoning farming when rain and soil fertility started failing them.

Whether their choice was right or wrong, there was no better judge than time. The result of Anai's choice is out: the environment has been greatly degraded, the area is getting arid, the swamps have dried up, even water for making bricks is not there and families are so disgruntled as poverty and hunger rage in Anai even more.

Written by Abet Tonny

''With no single food grain in the house, I had been so troubled but I have eventually stopped worrying. I have come to agree with Jesus that every new day caters for itself. But I didn't want to live in uncertainty like this. The rain has consistently failed our crops here. Last year we harvested no single grain, the drought could not allow and there is hardly any money to purchase food today either,'' Cylvia, a mother of 10 narrates as she walks me along with a scary wide and deep spread of hole where the soil is quarried to make bricks.

The holes are neck-height in-depth when you jump inside and roughly 10 square meters wide. This brick making site is where Cylvia along with 3 families of her married sons find refuge when crops fail. They go making bricks for sale. Sylvia's brick-making site is adjacent to her younger son's grass thatched house and a thin road leading to a spring well negotiates along.

Anai, a prominent community in Lira district found in the northern part of Uganda continues to portray very abnormal social and economic characteristics. With a small population of 12653 as of the year 2018, Anai has for the last two (2) decades remained the top producer of cured bricks supplying the springing city of Lira.

According to Sylvia, brick-making is the major source of livelihood in Anai introduced around 1991 when the rain volumes and patterns in the area started reducing and becoming unpredictable respectively. Crops started failing and hunger became more rampant. However, the available data and information from key informants seem to point that wide embrace of brick-making has contributed to a phenomenal increase in rates of crime, drug abuse, school dropout and teenage pregnancy, illiteracy, domestic violence and hunger in the community of Anai.

These issues started emerging in the last 15 years -roughly 5 years since the embrace of brick-making as a substitute for farming. According to key informants, Anai has found itself wretched since the commence of brick-making and the locals are helpless as children remain illiterate and food insecurity threaten the future of Anai. The complexity in Anai is probably resulting from a bad climate change adaptation strategy.

As a science writer based in Lira district, the dire situation moved me to design a special investigation focusing on why Anai shows these socio-economic disparities well knowing a number of other communities across Sub-Saharan Africa have found themselves entangled in Anai's kind of situation - a wrong climate change adaptation strategy. In designing this investigation, the important question was, could be embracing brick-making as major source of livelihood be causing more harms to

Anai and if yes, is there a way out? The 12-month slow-paced investigation focusing on five (5) parameters: state of tree cover in Anai, the difference in rainfall (pattern/volume) in Anai, state of soil (fertility/erosion), the extent of wetland reclamation and difference in crop yield in Anai. The investigation shall involve interactions with local people, policymakers, environmentalists and climatologists. The other bit will entail work with researchers to perform laboratory studies depending on the availability of funds. The investigation was launched in October 2018 and this is the first release.

Since 1991, Anai started moving away from agriculture strategizing in brick-making, a form of livelihood where 70% of the community dwellers have been engaged at someone point. According to Okello -a learned young man and prominent brick-maker, an investment of $100 in a brick-making venture will yield $20 to $30 in 3 months.

''This is far better than farming where we are always getting no yield because the rain is very unpredictable," Okello narrates as he clears the brick-making site. As the discussion gets more interesting, Okello reveals that most locals can't raise the $100 investment so families keep working for 'local investors' like him with the locals earning $10 to $20 monthly ($0.3 to $0.7 daily).

This daily earning can at best secure only one meal a day. Not mentioning the health, education and clothing needs of the family. This may partly explain why there is a high rate of school dropout -parents have no money to pay school fees as feeding alone is big trouble. When I asked Okello about the likely danger of his work to his surrounding, Okello had this spirited answer, "Yes I think there could be dangers like deforestation associated with need for firewood to cure the bricks and soil loss just like the industries in Lira town like Beb Wine and Mukwano are also causing dangers to the environment by releasing toxic wastes to the river.

You can't tell me to go farming to save the environment well knowing the rain will fail me and I will turn into a thief. Let the government bring us irrigation and we shall change. In fact, this brick-making work is harder than farming but we do it because it is more secure."

Close to 10% of soil in Anai has been sold off in form of bricks. At least 60% of tree cover has been lost in a quest to remain competitive in producing cured bricks. Generally viewing, the mature trees make up less than 2% of the remaining trees in Anai.

Mature trees are the most preferred in curing bricks. Deforestation is not a unique unfolding in Uganda, in September 2018, Uganda National Forestry Authority reported that Uganda has lost over 3,000,000 hectares of forest cover in 25 years only. The lack of tree cover means wind and fast running rainwater can carry away the soil. The soil surface runoff speed of rainwater remains unchecked. 

The unchecked speed of running water causes a huge volume of topsoil rich in organic matter and nutrients to be washed away leaving the farmers with soil that is not fertile. The massive soil loss in brick-making will also mean the next breed of young people settling in Anai and interested in farming have nowhere to start from. The deep and wide holes may take close to 100 years to fill up with arable soil. This is according to Opio James, an environmentalist based in Lira.

The morning of December 4th, 2018 found me in Anai. It is a period when schools are ongoing and am in the western part of Anai. It rained here 2 days ago but the soil is consistently dry. Few young trees can be seen distances apart, it's has been a full hour riding along swamps but I have not yet seen unreclaimed wetland. Dried stems of rice from the previous season are common in all swamps revealing the swamps are being reclaimed to grow rice. Few sugarcane plants can also be seen in other reclaimed swamps.

There are also several brick-making sites per home and other huge communal ones with women and young children toiling in making bricks. Some few adult males either standingby the brick-making sites or sunbathing at the site.

Most of the brick-making holes are around waist-height to neck-height deep. It is 8:30 a.m in Anai, a number of youthful and adult males can also be seen squatting along the main road and others seated in trading centers either playing cards or sipping alcohol in small-white sachets. ''They are awaiting trucks that would show up over the day to ferry fired bricks to Lira town,'' Sam, a local at a trading center in Anai informs me as if worried I was a policeman coming for idlers.

''Life has greatly changed here over time, in the 1980s there was no brick-making here and everyone was farming. The soils were fertile and the harvests were very good. But the rains started failing us coupled with soil infertility. It was around the same time people started making bricks. More people started abandoning farming due to poor yields in preference for brick-making,'' Cylvia seated on a papyrus mat under her mango tree narrates to me.

Cylvia's husband reclaimed some portion of wetland 5 years ago to grow sugarcane and rice. ''It is the sugarcane and rice from wetland that enabled us build this small iron sheet-roofed house,'  says Cylvia. Cylvia has a small iron sheet-roofed house with a bedroom and sitting room. I sat wondering how the small house fits her 6 children except for the relief the other 4 children are adults in their own grass thatched houses.

Cylvia along with her husband do brick-making as well as engage in farming. Some of her garden land is located upland but she prefers the wetland garden. However, a wrangle had emerged last year on the ownership of the wetland and her family lost the entire garden.

Cylvia thinks brick-making caused rain shortage and soil infertility due to deforestation but she does not believe wetland reclamation has impact on environment. According to another brivk-maker, Opio, sometimes it is strange that it rains around Lira University -just 3 kilometers from Anai and not a single rain drop falls in Anai. Cylvia amd Opio believe brick-making is not sustainable but they see no way out either.

So far, 3 months have passed and the investigation is getting more interesting. Anai remains one of the hotspots for impacts of climate change and environmental degradation.

Enormous deforestation and wetland reclamation top in the concerns. How the deforestation and wetland reclamation directly result in the high reduction in rainfall in Anai is one of the major areas where locals and policymakers are interested in understanding. Remembering that before brick-making started in this area, Anai had already started experiencing a reduction in rainfall.

The next phase of our investigation shall involve interviewing a number of climatologists and environmentalists as well ad sharing some credible research findings by top scientists. Was brick-making a Wolf and not Saviour to Anai's situation of reduced volume of rainfall? The next release shall be in July 2019.




About the Author:
Abet Tonny is a Freelance Science Writer from life science background graduating in 2016 from Makerere University. He has professional training from CABI/SCIENCE AND DEVELOPMENT NETWORK and Amref Health Africa in investigative reporting of scientific issues. He guest writes for GLOFORD Uganda and his blog SCIENCE JAF. He is also a passionate farmer and a good will ambassador of Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) in Lira district. Email:tonnyabet@gmail.com