Pave the Impenetrable? An Economic Analysis of Potential Ikumba - Ruhija Road Alternatives in and Around Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park: CSF Technical Series No. 35 | April 2015

In July 2012, the Ugandan government’s Uganda National Road Authority (UNRA) advertised the opportunity to design and construct 1,900 km of strategic roads in the country. One of these roads is the “Lot E.3: Hamurwa-Karere-Kanungu/Bulema-Buhoma-Butogota-Hamayan- ja-Ifasha-Ikumba” road project (UNRA, 2012), as included in Annex 1. Part of this project is the upgrade of a murram road1 between the Ikumba junction on the Kabale – Kisoro road and the town of Buhoma, the main hub for tourism in and around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP). BINP is a globally recognized UNESCO World Heritage Site, and one of the last remaining habitats of about half the world’s population of the critically endangered mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei), one of Uganda’s main tourist attractions. Approximately 13 km of the Ikumba – Buhoma road passes through the park and is currently the only access route from Kabale to the town of Ruhija. Given BINP’s importance to Uganda’s development and conservation objectives, the International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP) and the Uganda Chapter of Poverty and Conservation Learning Group (Ug-PCLG) have proposed, in consultation with local communities and engineers, two alternative routes which bypass construction within BINP.