Shoebill Mabamba Swamp Tours Safaris Uganda.

Shoebill Uganda Tours offers the services of Shoebill Mabamba Swamp Tours Safaris Uganda. Wetlands Sanctuary is a vast waterlogged area stretching through a long/narrow papyrus-filled channel on the outer showers of Lake Victoria in Entebbe Uganda. Lake Victoria is the largest inland freshwater lake in Africa. Mabamba Bay swamp is located within the wider Wakiso district in a small village known as Kasanje (40 kilometers away from Kampala). The name Mabamba was adopted because the area has abundant lungfish (mamba in the local language).

The Mabamba Bay swamp is important to the economic well-being of the local people living in the area. They used the swamp for fishing, hunting Sitatunga (swamp antelope), and harvesting papyrus for building/craft materials. The water from the swamp is used at home and for domestic animals. Shoebill Mabamba Swamp Tours Safaris Uganda.

The Mabamba wetlands sanctuary has over 260 species of birds making it an important bird area in Uganda. The wetland is home to 38% of the total population of blue swallows in the world and home to the endangered yellow warbler. Ramsar listed Mabamba as a wetland of international importance in 2006 in order to raise global awareness/concern and the funding necessary to protect it from complete destruction. As population increased in areas close to the swamp, more and more people were looking to the swamp as a source of livelihood. Swamp encroachment became a threat to the biodiversity in the swamp.  The numbers of birds and creatures like Sitatunga which thrived in the swamp had been decreasing over the years. Shoebill Mabamba Swamp Tours Safaris Uganda.

The government of Uganda with support from international partners has curbed encroachment on the wetland and helped promote it as a leading birding destination in the country. Shoebill Mabamba Swamp Tours Safaris Uganda. The government has initiated community sensitization programs to deter encroachments and inform them of the importance of the swamp to the Eco-system. They have also been encouraged to take advantage of the opportunities offered by bird tourism in the area. Some of the fishermen are now used as bird Guides since they know every corner of the swamp. As a result of community sensitization, the people living close to the swamp now know the implications of destroying the wetland.  They have also been quick to embrace tourism and the opportunities it offers. Tourists on a Uganda safari often make stops in the area to spot birds like the blue swallow, yellow warbler, the papyrus gonolek and the Shoebill stork which we will be discussing in more detail shortly. You might also be interested in the other activities in Entebbe to