KABALE – A team of research experts from Kabale University has raised concerns about the increasing rate of wetland degradation in Southwestern Uganda, warning that it is endangering the region’s endemic biodiversity.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The warning was issued during a stakeholders’ meeting aimed at disseminating data from the project titled “Site Selection to Protect Papyrus Endemic Biodiversity in Uganda – SEBU.”
Launched in April 2023, the three-year project was funded by JRS Biodiversity, a US-based independent grant-making organization. It involved collecting and analyzing geographic data on high-altitude, specialized species at risk of extinction, focusing primarily on papyrus-endemic birds, reptiles, and amphibians found above 1,300 meters.
Dr. Julius Arinaitwe, the Chief of the Directorate of Research and Grants, explained that the SEBU project was developed to focus on Southwestern Uganda due to the region’s unique biodiversity, which is significantly affected by altitude, particularly in the mountains.
He noted that there were approximately 300 small wetland patches in the area, but the project prioritized five particularly significant wetlands that remain relatively intact.
The five wetlands selected include Nyamuriro in Rubanda District, Lake Bunyonyi in Kabale District, Rushebeya – Kanyabaha in Rukiga District, Bukiro Rwampara and Nyaruteme in Ntungamo District, which altogether provide habitat for up to 4,000 birds across six species.
However, the wetlands are facing increasing degradation due to human activities such as bush burning, mining, agriculture, among others.
According to the researchers, these threats jeopardize the habitats of the birds, reptiles, and amphibians that rely on the wetlands. The research findings indicate that the most endangered bird species is the Papyrus Yellow Wobbler.
Among the studied wetlands, Nyaruteme and Rushebeya are the most degraded. The researchers have called for the designation of these wetlands as protected biodiversity areas to ensure the preservation of their avian and aquatic life.
“When a wetland is designated as a biodiversity area, it means that any development project in the vicinity will require measures to prevent disruption of the region’s endemic biodiversity,” Dr. Arinaitwe explained.
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Nakafeero, the Principal Environment Officer and Senior District Support Officer at the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), stated that Uganda has made significant strides in wetland conservation.
Between 2021 and 2025, the country restored up to 3.35 million hectares of protected wetlands. She added that the restoration rate has steadily increased from 8.9% in 2019 to approximately 13.9% in 2025, surpassing the African average of 3%.
She however pointed out that protecting the wetlands from degradation is paramount because restoration is “quite expensive Ms. Nakafeero noted that the country’s goal is to recover at least 30% of degraded wetlands by 2030.
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Lucy Lyango, the Commissioner for Wetlands at the Ministry of Water and Environment, highlighted that development pressure remains the primary threat to wetlands in Uganda.
She pointed out that wetland coverage was at 15% when she joined the government in the 1990s but has since declined to 9% as of 2026. Ms. Lyango emphasized that Uganda aims to increase wetland coverage to at least 12% by 2040 and urged all Ugandans to contribute to achieving this goal.
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She expressed the Ministry’s gratitude to Kabale University for coordinating the research efforts, and subsequently disseminating it.
“We recently realized that Academic institutions are very important sources of researched data that can inform policy making, but it only helps when disseminated” she said.
Uganda is a signatory to several major global and regional conventions that govern the protection, management, and sustainable use of wetlands, including the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (1971), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD, 1992), the Bonn Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), and the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI), among others.
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