HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT
WISHLIST
Office Equipment & Field Supplies ($12,000)
Computers, furniture and office equipment are necessary to fully equip the office and staff of JGI in Uganda. Additional field resources are necessary for potential animal rescue situations, as JGI is one of the first organization approached by the Ugandan government in chimpanzee welfare/rescue situation.
Equipment for Field Education Centres ($18,000):
JGI Uganda has established two field education centres to date and by the end of 2007 will have another one up and operational. Theshort term goal is to have at least 4 field education centres in the key chimpanzee habitat areas, but ideally we would like to see one in every habitat area of great apes. UWA has built an education centre in Mgahinga National Park and with the new centre at Budongo Forest Reserve there is the need for audio visual equipment and solar energy to power them so adults from the local communities can come and visit and view documentaries and other films that will help them be better neighbours. The cost for each of the first two centre to provide solar energy; audio visual etc is $9000US.
Budongo Forest Reserve ( $65,000)
JGI Uganda is very active on the ground in Budongo Forest, which is one of the four largest chimp population habitat areas. We have several priority activities we would like to do over the next 2 years.
a. Translocation of School:
During the past year, we have discovered that a school was built on forestry land right in the middle of the research communities core habitat area. The presence of this school is a threat to these chimps and is a hazard for the children. JGI has negotiated with all stakeholders including Dept of Education, local communities, National Forestry Authority and Budongo Forest Project. We have a consensus to move the school and the education department have committed to building an additional 3 classrooms at the new site. JGI Uganda is now seeking $40,000US which is the cost of transferring the school to another location outside the forest reserve. Timeframe needed: April-June 2007
b. Landuse agreements with landowners around Budongo Forest that have
private forests that chimpanzees use, in order to encourage them to restrict logging and protect chimpanzees. JGI Uganda expect to require $10,000US in the first year (and larger amounts in the following years) to start the process with 2-3 landowners, signing 10 yr agreements on not cutting the trees and protecting the chimps on their land.
c. Bulindi Community Centre:
Bulindi Forest is a community forest only 20kms south of Budongo Forest Reserve, it is an important forest as a corridor connecting up fragmented populations of chimps to the two major habitat areas. The Bulindi Community contacted JGI for help. The initial idea that the community had was to do ecotourism with tracking the chimps in their forest. We discouraged this idea, due to the pressure already on this chimp community. But, on visiting the area, we realized the site was in a perfect location for providing a 'pit stop' for tourists traveling through the area, which they do to visit the national parks. We have estimated that to build a community coffee/tea house that has nice toilets and allow the community to sell crafts etc would cost $15,000US. This year, we have a construction manager on staff who would be able to supervise this project, thus keeping cost at a minimum.
