Kampala — The saga in Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) is becoming hot news in the daily newspapers. One daily gave an itinerary of the probe committee that was set up by the Minister of Tourism Trade and Industry to probe "alleged mismanagement of gorilla tracking permits by the Uganda Wildlife Authority".

Among other things, they are to hold public hearings in Kisoro, Kabale and Kanungu as well as field visits. This follows the sacking of some of UWA's managers and the sending of others on forced leave over allegations of abuse of office. I would like to make a few observations about this probe committee and then make a suggestion for the minister's consideration:

Although the advert indicates that the probe team is to investigate alleged mismanagement of gorilla tracking permits, it is actually looking at the issue of giving first refusal rights for the six gorilla permits to the Nkuringo gorilla group in Kisoro District. This is where, the residents of Nkuringo were mobilised and supported to develop an eco-lodge under their ownership and a private investor was competitively identified to manage the lodge, an investment worth $100,000.

To ensure viability of this community-owned eco-lodge, six out of eight gorilla permits for this group were 'tied' to those visitors that would stay in the community lodge on a first refusal basis after which these permits could go to other visitors that wanted to stay elsewhere. Tour operators under their umbrella the Association of Uganda Tour Operators (AUTO) complained and even took the matter to court, accusing UWA and the private investor of monopolising the permits.

The matter is still before court. The composition of this probe committee is highly suspect. Among the people who are on this committee are the president of AUTO, Amos Wekesa, and one board member of UWA.

Amos as a tour operator is among the people who are complaining about this arrangement, that was designed to conserve one of the most endangered species in the world - the mountain gorillas. As president of AUTO, he has been spearheading the complaints about the Nkuringo gorilla permits. His being on the committee, therefore, raises concern.

The Nkuringo gorilla tourism group, presents a unique experience in the conservation world of an endangered species with local communities and the private sector. The approach was exhaustively discussed with all key stakeholders, at local, district, national, regional and international levels.

Indeed, there is a good amount of literature on this approach, that depicts it as a breakthrough in the conservation history. The threats to the Nkuringo gorilla group were adequately addressed and the group is being successfully conserved by the local people themselves. Before this approach was designed, the survival of this group was precarious.

All the negotiations were undertaken in a transparent manner and records properly taken and kept. They are available for anyone who cares about these gorillas and the local people, including the legally binding documents between the private sector and the people of Nkuringo, UWA and Nkuringo. There was no underhand methods of working.

Based on the above observations, I would suggest that instead of setting up a probe committee chaired by a security agent with little understanding about conservation discipline as a profession, the board of UWA set up a team to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach to conserve mountain gorillas.

Among the terms of this team of conservation evaluation professionals, would be to assess if the objectives of conserving mountain gorillas and empowering local communities to fight poverty and participate in the management of the park were met and how to address any concerns by other stakeholders if any.

It is not necessary to interdict seven top managers of an organisation with hard earned experience, to set up a committee to probe what was transparently done 10 years ago, because there are some people who complained.