Whose animals? A history of property rights to wildlife in Toro, western Uganda

Abstract

As property of the state and symbol of colonial authority, Africa's wildlife fared poorly during the 20th century. Current campaigns to devolve wildlife property rights promise to provide local communities with incentive to better protect wildlife. But defining ‘local community’ and building viable property arrangements requires an understanding of socio-ecological conditions and their historical formation. This paper examines the transition in claimants and wildlife property regimes in Toro District, western Uganda during 1923–79. Data are drawn from government archives and oral histories of 23 Toro elders. Toro wildlife ownership centered on spirit appeasement and a social hierarchy of hunting rights. Colonial wildlife ownership was also hierarchical, but emphasized parks and restrictions on hunting technology. Under both systems, Toro royals enjoyed privileged access to big game. Toro property claims ultimately cannot be disentangled from colonial wildlife property regimes. By mid-century, government ‘control’ campaigns packed wildlife into parks, where they were later decimated by war and poaching. Today recovering wildlife populations create conflict when they stray into densely settled agricultural lands. Necessary reform in property rights is constrained by historically rooted political and physical conditions, and idealized notions of ‘local community’. Neither wildlife nor the rural poor are served by simplistic prescriptions to ‘hand over’ wildlife to imagined communities isolated from government or market forces. Instead, wildlife property arrangements must reflect ecosystem-level processes and macropolitical and economic forces shaping local use of wildlife. National parks are essential, but inadequate components of the land-use and property rights mosaic in western Uganda. Considerable financial and political support is required to build comanagement systems allowing local communities and the government to negotiate and experiment with alternative ways of owning and using wildlife beyond park boundaries. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.