SoylentNews

acid andy [soylentnews.org] writes:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/29/a-war-on-nature-rangers-build-mountain-out-of-wildlife-traps-found-in-uganda-park [theguardian.com]

“Over the past 10 years, we’ve removed about 47 tonnes of snares and bear traps,” says Michael Keigwin, the founder of Uganda Conservation Foundation (UCF) [ugandacf.org], a charity that works with the country’s wildlife authorities.

Speaking from the Ugandan capital, Kampala, Keigwin is referring to a set of photographs showing a 12-tonne pile of tangled snares and metal traps. The images, showing Ugandan government rangers posing with the traps, illustrate an African success story and a world of pain, say those who helped create it.

The pile, nicknamed “snare mountain”, was collected over 12 months as part of continuing conservation efforts at Uganda’s Murchison Falls national park [ugandawildlife.org]. At the bottom are so-called bear traps, used by poachers to catch elephants, hippos and lions. At the top are wire snares used for smaller animals.

[...] To put the reusable traps beyond the reach of poachers for good, the pile, like others before it, is being buried in the foundations of the park’s new buildings, which include ranger accommodation, an armoury, a veterinary lab and a police station.

As well as funding trap collection, Global Conservation [globalconservation.org] is providing Keigwin’s UCF team with close to $1m (£800,000) for park management, ranger and anti-poaching equipment, community development and “ecoguard” training. Ecoguards live in the surrounding communities and their jobs include snare collection and alerting rangers to wildlife that wander out of the park’s protected zone and need to be returned.

Original Submission