How the Pygmies/ Batwa used to live in the forest

The Batwa pygmies are the forest people displaced from the rain forest. They shared with the endangered mountain gorillas and inhabited the surrounding areas of kigezi (Switzerland of Africa) like lake Bunyonyi, Nkuringo , Rubuguri,  Buhoma and Mgahinga region.

A pygmy/ Mutwa man coming oout from the house up in a tree

 They are one of the indigenous tribes in the world, working to preserve in their natural ancient culture and ways of life.

One can decide to meet the Batwa and see how they lived, hunt, treated themselves using medicinal herbs and many other.

There cultural sites and living history encounter located just forests of Mgahinga national park and Bwindi forest national park (home of the mountain gorillas) in south west Uganda.

Come visit the  batwa poeple in Uganda

WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS

In order to protect the environment for the next generation, we need utilize the natural resouces sustainably without undengering ut for the next generation. This can be done through practicing Eco tourism which is a purposeful travel that creates an understanding of cultural and natural history while safe guarding the integrity of the eco system and producing the economic benefits that encourages conservation. There should be a need to generate income to support conservation of environment and its sources which attracts tourists for example world life, culture of local people and historical sites.

This can be developed or practiced where there are natural attraction such as water bodies, mountains, forests and many others. However this must increase the public awareness on the environment, attracts tourists to the natural environment which are unique and accessible, improve nature conservation through educating attitudes of local people towards nature conservation and support government or private initiatives in nature conservation, provide employment and business opportunities to the local people (tour guide)

The eco tourists who are the people interested in visiting the eco destinations, are in need to visit places which they have never been before places of particular interest or places where they can derive maximum satisfaction. Such interest in eco tourism by eco tourists is facilitated by Tour Company who develops and operates special tour packages to meet eco tourist’s demand and to enable them to visit certain destinations.

Tourism organizations that participate in eco tourism development have special interest in eco tourism because they want their business to grow and earn more income however they need to provide good quality services in order to  capture the market and maintain public interest, confidence in  their business.

The host population/local communities at eco tourism destination expect to benefit directly from eco tourism and they need to be involved in the planning development and management.

The conservationists or environmentalists they should lobby for conservation of environment. They have special interest in natural environment because it contains the attractions. If the environment was not well managed ,  the eco tourists who could come in future are denied  the opportunity to  visit and experience the environment  that is different not from  those in their country, quality, environment, the attractions, and revenue is lost.   

However, if there is a high rise in tourists number due to population of destinations may result in environmental degradation and loss of attraction in such a case eco tourists would begin to go else were in the process eco tourism declines because the environment has been degraded and lost its appeal in the end both the environment and the eco tourism development lose;

 In a situation where one benefits while the other loses for example the local people denied access to the resources in an eco destination site that is being protected as tourists destination then they rose out to conservation interest. There for in all situations, the links between all parties must positive and equal.

The optimum number of eco tourists that can be accommodated by a destination or site without coursing permanent damage to the environment should be limited. This will lead to the development of eco development in the world through nature conservation, cultural contacts and respect, growth of the economy, improvement of local transport and communication infrastructure, productive use of marginal areas, growth of domestic industries such as food processing and improvement of country’s balance of payment.

The world's hairy person

Tracking the world's greatest hairy human relative is the greatest unforgettable experience in world that you will never forget especially when found in its natural habitat relating with the surrounding. That is when they are feeding, grooming them selves, playing, and parenting especially the silver back.
This experience is only found and done in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Mgahinga gorilla national park which are located in the south-western part of Uganda on the edge of the Rift Valley. The mist covered hillsides are sheltered within one of the oldest rainforests in the world. These parks “impenetrable and Mgahinga”  also protects ahalf of the world's total population of Gorillas approximately 350 mountain gorillas. They also inhabit different bird specis, butterflies, animals and plant species.
For ornithologists, these parks hold over 600 species of birds and they contain 90% of the Albertine Rift endemics, hardily seen in any other part of the East Africa but atleast 100 bird species can be seen a day. You can visit  Buhoma, and Ruhija to see species like the African green broad bill (psedocalptomena graveri), dwarf honey guide (indicator pumilio), kivu ground thrush (zoothera a Tanganjicak), Lagdeen's bush shrike ( Mahacanotus legdeni), Chaplin's flycatcher (Musticapa lend), Oberhandar's ground thrush, yellow eyed flycatcher, montane double-collared sunbird (Nectarinia ludoviencis), and dusky twinspot.
However gorilla tracking in these parks can be acompaneed with other activities like the Primate warching, Nature walks and village walks, mountain Bike Rides, Community Hspital visits, Batwa or Pygmy experience, and community volunteering.
Accommodation in the area is availabable with different range. These are located in and outside the parks. The all have Single rooms, double rooms, twin and farmily rooms and cottages and are built and designed using lacal materials such as sisal ropes, forest vines and many others with bathrooms (with hot water showers) and good veranda for viewing the spectacular scenery that surrounds the lodges.
Therefore, it is a place that one will never forget once you visit this small piece of the “Pearl of Africa”.

Grasslands

Grasslands are playing a big role in supporting life on earth. This is due to adaptation of animals vering form the big animals to small like, Elephants, Buffaloes, Rhinos, Gazelles, wildbeests, kobs, waterbucks, warthoges, hippopotamus, topis, hynas, leopards, lions, kobs, rats, haire, mangoos, and many others. Thay also support averiety of life on earth like the Reptiles, insects and different bird species like theCinnamon bee eater, Holub’s golden weaver,Chin spotted batis,Yellow bishop,Great cormorant,Long tailed cormorant, Northern black fly catcher,African paradise fly catcher,African-golden breasted bunting,Grey heron, Yellow fronted canary,Namaqua dove, Died rick cuckoo, Black headed batis, Crowned lapwing,Violent –backed starling,Winding cisticola, African open billed stork, Red-chested sunbird, Olivaceous warbler, Gull billed tern, African harrier hawk, Arrow marked babbler, Double toothed barbet, Common –black headed gull,Red caped lark, White crowned lapwing,Crowned lapwing, Common green shank,and many other.


Human activities like the farming is commonly carried out on grassland areas whereby they are fertile and easy to caltivate on since they experience low rainfall compared to other habitants and need low energy to reclaim the land like using (fire, slashing and many others).
Hunting animals like the Cat farmily (Lions,Leopards, and Cheetahs), Dog farmily (hynas,wild dogs) Savannah areas provede a good chance to sport the preys, Comoflage well and ran easily to attarck.
Birds that are scarvangers like Vultures makes it easily to sport the kill while in air. Perasitic birds like the Kites and many others makes it easily to sport the the others nests where they can lay their eggs. Birds of prey can see very well their preys like the rodents, snakes, small repties and many others.
Also by comparing animals that live both in the savannah and tropical rain forests forexample Forest Elephants, and Forest Buffaloes, they are smaller to the ones that live in the savannah reason being that savannah vegetation provides alote of food and and a subjected to direct sunlight which makes them to grow very well and big or fat

Beautiful Lake Bunyonyi!

Beautiful might not be the right word to use every time I visit  Lake Bunyonyi, Africa's second deepest Lake.
Birhazia- free waters with undulating terraced hills sorounding this trough like lake.Perhaps the best relaxation place in Africa is a must see when you visit Uganda. It is also the best place in Africa to watch otters....you cant fail to see one!Nowonder the majority of tourists visit this wonderful place on their way from tracking the famous mountain gorillas of Bwindi National Park and Mgahinga. Bunyonyi literally means "many small birds" and indeed it is a place of many  bird species. The cool breeze, green sorounding vegetation, clean water and sweet sounds from  these birds make it purely natural and every time I see young children, old ladies and pregnant women canoeing to  and from school, markets churches, plantation  gardens on the numerous islands makes it more facinating! Lake Bunyonyi has attracted many investments in form of campsites, hotels and guest houses but still below capacity for the increasing number of tourists especially in the peak season and festive periods. I have never been in the best position to count the islands on this lake but  29 of them seems not to be the right figure! The people- the Bakiga always welcome you with that honest smile, perhaps the most hospitable tribe in Uganda I highly recommend Lake Bunyonyi  to both Ugandan and foreign tourists.

Caltural attarchment on twins in Buganda kingdom-Uganda

The birth of twin in Buganda is treated as something special. Not only are they always given special names, but the names of the parents are also changed. When twins are born(It does not matter what sex they are) the father change his name to salongo and the mother changes to Nalongo. If the twins are boys they will be named Waswa and Kato while if they are girls, they are Nakato and Babirye.

Snails in Uganda

Snails include the kind served in restaurants, as well as clams, and the snails in your garden that destroy your plants.

They are triploblastic protostomes. This means that their bodies are made up of a mass of material that holds the organs, a foot that holds the muscle enabling them to attach to a surface, and the head.  Some, but not all, have eyes and tentacles.

The snail's body has a sheet or mantel, which forms a shell from secretions.

They scrape up their food by moving back and forth on an edible surface.  You can picture this when you recall seeing a snail attached to a leaf.  Later you see the leaf is full of holes.
snails do not have segmented bodies, like most all land animals.
They are believed to be related to the annelids.  Annelids are animals that do have segmented bodies.
They are not male or female - they are hermaphrodites. They can produce both sperm and eggs.
The snail has no sense of hearing, they use their sense of smell and feeling to maneuver about the earth.
A snail is not in the insect family.  There are more snails than insects on earth.
The trail of slime that they leave as they move allows them to move on any type of surface in any terrain without being injured. Think of being able to walk on glass, sharp rocks etc. without hurting your feet.