The Murchison Project has been established for 3 years and, like all Soft Power Education projects, aims to link tourists with development improving the quality of life of Ugandans through education.
Murchison Falls National Park and Conservation Area is situated in the North West of Uganda, around 350km downstream from Soft Power’s ancestral home in Jinja and about 90km from Masindi town. It takes its name from the dramatic falls, where the entire Victoria Nile is forced through a 7 metre gap before cascading to a frothing pool 43m below. It is an area with a fascinating history from the pre-colonial ‘Bantu expansion’, through to the filming of ‘The African Queen’ and the turbulent Amin years. It is also one of the most diverse parks with its rolling savannah dotted with palm trees, the lush riverine forests on the banks of the Nile and the dense rainforest in its southern most areas. Murchison Falls is home to a wide variety of animals including Lion, Leopard, Giraffe, Uganda Kob, Elephant, Hippo, Chimpanzee, Buffalo, Hartebeest, Crocodile. The park also hosts an amazing array of Kingfishers, Bee Eaters, Storks, Crested Crane, Vultures, Hornbills, Eagles and on and on. The majestic Nile provides some of the finest sport fishing anywhere in the world with Nile Perch weighing over 100kgs being found there - they have to compete with crocodiles and hippos after all!
For more information about the National Park, please refer to the Bradt Guide to Uganda.
Like all protected areas, the park faces many pressures and challenges. Maintaining the infrastructure and managing its resources is an expensive business at the best of times, but the added pressure of the discovery and exploration of oil within its boundaries is creating further competition for its resources. Impoverished local communities who have been negatively impacted by the parks presence and the oil have so far been unable to benefit to any great extent from either. Poaching of game and fish and destruction of habitat for economic gain or cultural reasons is commonplace.
Since 2007 Soft Power Education's Murchison Project has been working alongside the Uganda Wildlife Authority with those communities living around the Park. The project encompasses three aspects, click on each of the links below for more information: