Tackling Human-Lion Conflict in Queen Elizabeth NP

Grantee	Wildlife Conservation Society
Type	Human-wildlife Coexistence
Grant Amount	$273,543
Duration	3 years

Tackling Human-Lion Conflict in and Around Queen Elizabeth National Park

Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda has recently experienced a major spike in retaliatory killing of lions. This has contributed to a decline in numbers from 144 individuals to around 100. WCS is developing a comprehensive program to tackle human-lion conflict in the park. With LRF support received in 2017, they undertook a number of activities, including: rehabilitating a Uganda Wildlife Authority ranger station near the boundary to help tackle illegal incursions of livestock into the park; rehabilitating and extending the trenches along the boundary which have been erected to minimize cattle movement into the park and of elephants out of the park; hire community scouts to act as a liaison between WCS and UWA and the communities to help tackle human-lion conflict (HLC) and to train communities in livestock husbandry techniques designed to reduced depredation of cattle by lions, and monitoring lions in conflict-prone areas to help for rapid response in the event that they leave the park.

2019 UPDATE: The LRF grant is designed to strengthen WCS’s efforts to support law enforcement and the mitigation of conflict in Queen Elizabeth National Park, in Uganda. WCS proposes to maintain the trench and excavate an additional one kilometer in the HLC hotspot area, deploy anti-poaching wildlife cameras, conduct community conservation education and awareness, support improved livestock management practices and monitor the effectiveness of various HLC mitigation measures (e.g. solar lighting, lion proof kraaling and goat pens), de-snare the southern sector of the park, support UWA to establish a well-equipped rapid lion response and rescue unit, develop and use lion monitoring metrics and protocols to measure project impact on lion conservation, and conduct an investigative survey to establish the motivations behind lion killing.