This last point is important. These people, living in close proximity to the forest, are
aware of the benefits in terms of employment offered by the BFP and the nearby
Busingiro eco-tourism site. The main general benefits of eco-tourism to local populations
have been described by Grove (1995)^86 and Akhos (2000). Wathyso (2000) made a study
of the benefits of eco-tourism around Budongo Forest and found that while there were no
financial benefits for most people, they did support it because the Busingiro eco-tourism
site had provided financial support out of its revenue to local primary schools.
There were other, less expected benefits arising from chimpanzees. Locals stated that
wild pigs and baboons will keep their distance when chimpanzees are around, so that
chimpanzees serve as ‘guards’ for crops; they accepted that this did not always happen,
however.
Our second study to date of human attitudes to chimpanzees is that of Zephyr
Kiwede, our senior field assistant at the BFP (Kiwede 2001). Kiwede conducted 120
interviews in the 10 villages comprising Nyabyeya Parish. He was especially interested
in any possible changes in attitudes to chimpanzees following the widespread adoption
of sugar cane growing by local villagers, as outgrowers for the Kinyara Sugar Works.
Would the chimpanzees’ known propensity for sugar cane have caused a hardening
of attitudes among farmers? His sample contained 20 outgrowers of sugar as well as
100 non-sugar-cane growers. Being a Ugandan who knew the local languages as well
as English and Swahili, Kiwede was able to conduct the interviews himself without an
interpreter. The interviews included people from the Alur, Lendu, Kaligo and Okebu
tribes of DRC, Kakwa from the Sudan, and among Ugandans Lugbara from Arua,
Banyoro (the indigenous inhabitants of the Budongo area, here before the other tribes
arrived), Bakonzo from Bundibugyo, Baganda from Buganda and Madi from Moyo.
Baboons and pigs were considered the most serious vermin. Chimpanzees were not
regarded as a problem.
One of the farmers reported that if two chimpanzees came to your garden, for example maize garden,
each chimpanzee would take two cobs of maize. By greediness if one decides to take more than
enough that causes a fight among themselves. So farmers considered chimpanzees as ‘well
behaved’ animals.
Farmers reported that chimpanzees were not a problem...only that they have always come for
pawpaws and mangoes [which was] okay because there are many around. However, 21% of farmers
complained of chimpanzees as serious vermin. Of these, 18% were sugar cane growers. 79%
reported that chimpanzees assisted in chasing away the notorious baboons from their gardens
(Kiwede 2001: 21 (also reported by Watkins 2001)).The above point is important: 21% of farmers, and almost all of the sugar cane out-
growers, considered that chimpanzees were ‘serious vermin’. This is a new crop, and one
that has only been grown for five years in the area since the Kinyara Sugar Works (KSW)
Chimpanzees and humans 209(^86) Grove lists the following benefits: money for the local community, encouraging them to conserve the
forest; job and training opportunities; some participation in forest management; and discouraging illegal
activities such as pitsawing and hunting.