The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) is a semi-autonomous

Ugandan government Uganda is a presidential republic in which the President of Uganda is the head of state and the prime minister is the head of government business. There is a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is ...

agency that aims to

conserve Conserve may refer to: * Conserve (condiment), a preserve made from a mixture of fruits or vegetables * Conserve (NGO), an Indian environmental organization * Conserve (publisher), a Dutch publisher * Conserved sequence, a protein or nucleic aci ...

, manage and regulate Uganda’s wildlife. "UWA is mandated to ensure sustainable management of wildlife resources and supervise wildlife activities in Uganda, both within and outside the protected areas". As of April 2020, UWA manages ten

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

s, twelve

wildlife reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

s, and fourteen

wildlife sanctuaries A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

. UWA also provides guidance for five community wildlife areas. It is governed by a board of trustees appointed by the Minister of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities, currently

Tom Butime Colonel (Retired) Tom Butime (born 1947) is a Ugandan politician. He is the Cabinet Minister of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities in the Ugandan Cabinet. He concurrently serves as the elected representative for Mwenge County Central, Kyenjojo ...

Location

The headquarters of UWA are located at Plot. 7, Kira Road, in the neighborhood called

Kamwookya Kamwookya, sometimes spelled as Kamwokya, is a location within the city of Kampala, Uganda's capital and largest metropolitan area. Location Kamwookya is bordered by Kyebando to the north, Bukoto to the northeast, Naguru to the east, Kololo to ...

, in the Central Division of the city of

Kampala Kampala (, ) is the capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,680,000 and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division, and Ruba ...

, Uganda's capital. The UWA headquarters building is sandwiched between the

Uganda Museum The Uganda Museum is located in Kampala, Uganda. It displays and exhibits ethnological, natural-historical and traditional life collections of Uganda's cultural heritage. It was founded in 1908, after Governor George Wilson called for "all articl ...

to the west and the

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to the east, along Kira Road. The geographical coordinates of this location are:0°20'10.0"N, 32°35'01.0"E (Latitude:0.336111, Longitude:32.583611).

Governance

Board of Trustees

The agency is governed by a nine-person

board of trustees A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

, appointed by the Minister of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities. The current board, which was appointed in March 2018, is chaired by Benjamin Otto, a former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism. The board serves for three years. The table below lists all the board members.

Management

On 26 March 2018, Sam Mwandha, who was previously employed at UWA in the early 2010s, officially assumed the office of

executive director Executive director is commonly the title of the chief executive officer of a non-profit organization, government agency or international organization. The title is widely used in North American and European not-for-profit organizations, though ...

of Uganda Wildlife Authority, succeeding Dr. Andrew Seguya, who had served two consecutive three-year terms in that office.

History

The UWA was established in August 1996 by the Uganda Wildlife Statute, which merged the ''Uganda National Parks Department'' with the ''Uganda Game and Fisheries Department''. In 2000, the Statute became an Act of parliament. The Act was amended in 2019 into the ''Uganda Wildlife Act, 2019''.

References

External links

Official Website
{{Protected Areas of Uganda Nature conservation in Uganda Organizations established in 1996 1996 establishments in Uganda National park administrators Organisations based in Kampala Kampala Central Division Government agencies established in 1996