Salome Alweny
3 November 2007
Kampala — An international scientific body has approved Uganda's proposal to lift the 1979 ban on Leopard hunting, the commissioner for Wildlife Conservation at the Ministry of Tourism Trade and Industry has said.
This means tourists in Uganda can now sport hunt only 28 leopards per year.
Mr Justus Tindigarukayo-Kashagire, who was speaking at a public dialogue at Makerere University on Thursday, presented a paper on the "Implications of sport hunting on the status of leopards in Uganda".
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) gave the green light after a presentation of the proposal to lift the ban by officials from the Ministry of Tourism, Trade and Industry and Uganda Wildlife Authority (Uwa).
Justification
CITES is an international agreement between governments to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.
The Executive Director of Uwa, Mr Moses Mapesa, said the lifting of the ban also applies to old and isolated leopards, which can no longer contribute to the leopard population.
He said the main justification for the proposal was because farmers and pastoralists see leopards as useless and destructive and kill them.
Mr Mapesa said sport hunting of leopards would make them more valuable rather than being poisoned or killed by the farmers and left to rot. Tourists will also pay for sport hunting the leopards.
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