TUSK CONSERVATION LECTURE 2016; UGANDA TO PRESENT – UGANDA SAFARI NEWS

The destination Uganda will be honoured to make a historical presentation at this year’s Tusk Conservation Lecture to be held on November 23^rd represented by a distinguished Conservationist and Health Officer Dr. Gladys Zikusoka Kalema
Popularly known as the founder of Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH), Dr. Gladys has truly demonstrated the linkage between the Mountain Gorillas and Public Health. Standing at the population of 880 world over and found in only three countries, the Mountain Gorillas are considered critically endangered and are listed among the must see creatures for many safari enthusiasts including those on Gorilla Safaris in Uganda.
The Communities living around the Mountain Gorilla habitats are noted to be among the most struggling on the continent of Africa marked with limited social services while the high population growth puts them in resource use conflict with the Mountain Gorillas including encroaching on their habitats – something that would result into transmission of diseases.
Gladys Kalema Zikusoka, will at the event give a captivating talk about her move to establish CTPH after realizing that fatal scabies skin disease outbreaks in the Mountain Gorillas had spread to people thriving around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and yet these people had limited health care.
The primary aim of the Gladys’s Conservation Through Public Health was to ensure biodiversity conservation through enhancing co-existence among wildlife, people and livestock by improving the health and the livelihoods of the people surrounding the Africa’s protected areas including the Uganda gorilla Safari tour site of Bwindi.  This therefore, puts the organisation at the centre of preventing and controlling the transmission of disease at the interface of wildlife, human and livestock while instilling the positive attitude among the local communities towards public health and conservation.
Through the Tusk Trust funding, the CTPH was able to put up a Gorilla Health and Community Conservation Center providing a permanent base for programmes, more laboratory and clinical work rooms not forgetting community education center where the locals sensitized about the beauty of public health and Mountain Gorilla Conservation including tapping the benefits brought in by travelers on Gorilla trekking safaris in Uganda Africa.
The Conservation Through Public Health intends to strengthen the strategic research partnerships with other research institutions and the Universities in order to evaluate and improve the One Health and Conservation approach impact after which the model can be expanded to incorporate other protected areas on the continent of Africa including; Congo’s Virunga National Park, Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park, Pian Upe Wildlife Reserve and Mount Elgon National Park.
Tusk is a charity Organisation focusing exclusively on African continent and has spent over twenty five (25) years investing into the protection of wildlife and community development all for the benefit of African people.