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Course:CONS200/2026WT2/Chimpanzee-human interactions in Uganda: Is a sustainable co-existence possible?

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As human populations expand and alter natural landscapes, human-wildlife conflict is an increasingly prominent challenge for conservation. Across many regions of the world, deforestation and forest degradation, including infrastructure and agriculture are reducing available habitats resulting in wildlife living in closer proximity to human communities[1]. This forced coexistence can create complex conflicts, particularly when wildlife travels among similar paths, threatens human safety, and damages crops. In Uganda, rapid population growth and landscape usage have escalated interactions between humans and chimpanzees. While chimpanzees are able to adapt and survive near human populated areas, their presence can lead to conflict with these communities[2]. Understanding the behaviour of chimpanzees and context of the issue, the drivers of human-chimpanzee conflict, and how to ease or resolve these conflicts is essential for conservation strategies that consider both human needs and chimpanzee needs.

Background

Background/History:

Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) are a primate species with four subpopulations: the Western chimpanzee, the Nigerian-Cameroonian chimpanzee, the Central chimpanzee, and the Eastern chimpanzee[3]. They are one of the closest relatives to humans, sharing about 98% of their genes with us[4]. All four subpopulations are endangered and protected legally[5]. Chimpanzees require a large range of land for optimal habitation of anywhere from 6-40km2[6]. Chimpanzees demonstrate a relatively high degree of behavioral flexibility compared to many other large mammals, which can allow them to persist in landscapes that are heavily influenced by human activity. Studies have shown that chimpanzees are capable of adapting their behavior to coexist with nearby human populations, adjusting their ranging patterns, diet, and activity in response to agricultural areas and fragmented habitats[6]. In some regions, cultural and historical practices have also reduced direct hunting pressure, as chimpanzees have not traditionally been widely hunted or consumed as bushmeat in certain local communities[7]. As a result, viable populations can survive outside strictly protected areas. For example, more than 500 eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) inhabit the landscape between the Budongo and Bugoma forest reserves in Uganda, where they live within a largely human-dominated environment while remaining connected to nearby protected areas[6]. These findings highlight the species’ capacity for ecological resilience, while also emphasizing the importance of human tolerance and landscape connectivity for the long-term survival of chimpanzee populations.

Causes of Conflict

The causes of chimpanzee-human conflict are complex and interconnected, however the four most prevalent are Deforestation/land use change, road construction, hunting/violence and chimpanzee behaviour. This is not an exhaustive list, however these four factors are the primary causes of conflict.

Deforestation

Land use has been changing regionally in Uganda in various ways such as extensive logging, clearcutting and increased cash cropping[5]. This is due to economic incentives as well as rapid population growth in areas such as the Bunyoro Kingdom in western Uganda. This results in devastating habitat loss for chimpanzees with serious consequences such as chimpanzees altering their nesting habits based on human pressure and forest use in the area. Chimpanzees prefer to nest in oil palm trees, however due to lower availability of these trees, chimpanzees have begun reusing their nests and nesting in smaller, less sturdy trees out of necessity. When chimpanzees' forest habitat is destroyed or disturbed, they are pushed closer to agricultural areas which catalyzes human interaction and potential conflict[8]. Pressures of deforestation are intense in Uganda as they have one of the highest population increase rates globally of 3.8%, and this growing population relies heavily on timber harvesting for fuel, economic output and there are few regulations on preventing deforestation in Uganda[8].

Roads

Chimpanzees crossing a road in Uganda.

Another cause of conflict with humans and chimpanzees is transportation infrastructure such as roads and cars. As human land-use expands and fragments forested areas, road construction expands along with it. In many areas, such as Bulindi in Uganda, chimpanzees use human made roads to travel, at varying capacities depending on times of the year. Deadly collisions between cars and chimpanzees are rare, however they can be extremely consequential as chimpanzees have slow reproductive cycles and one breeding-aged female death can affect the population for several years[9]. Since the human populations in Uganda are growing rapidly and chimpanzees are already under immense stress, motor vehicle collisions can be devastating for chimpanzees in Uganda[9]. There is evidence that chimpanzees are becoming more comfortable with road crossing than they previously were, which can increase the likelihood of dangerous crashes that can harm both humans and chimpanzees. This increasing comfortability and close proximity makes the need for increased community awareness and conflict prevention education necessary, especially as the issue of roads and how it impacts behaviour evolves in the long-term, as this research is relatively recent. Some possible solutions to the dealthy threat of roads could be speed bumps, police monitoring of speed or underpasses and tunnels[9].

Hunting and negative attitudes

To continue, as deforestation, habitat loss and road infrastructure increase, these effects can compound into increasingly negative attitudes towards chimpanzees from local people. Residents in Uganda claim to have noticed an increase in dangerous behaviour, such as an increase in entering villages for food, threats to humans and particularly pose threats to young children, of which there are reports of chimpanzees killing and eating them. Since chimpanzees are large and can have threatening behaviour when provoked, fear is particularly high amongst local people and out of this fear arises conflict. Surveys among local people in the Bunyoro region cited that a vast majority of residents believe chimpanzees are dangerous, with varying levels of concern and severity from simply being a bother to transmitting diseases, eating children and raping women. Moreover, there is conflict when chimpanzees cause damage to crops and agricultural production. Chimpanzees can cause damage to cash crops such as sugarcane, cocoa and bananas which leads to more human distaste and conflict with the apes, however only 8% of survey respondents claimed chimpanzees caused “a lot” of damage, stating that most of the time chimpanzees consume cultivars from gardens that are not necessary to sustain families financially[5].

Chimpanzee behaviour

Group of chimpanzees at the Uganda Wildlife Conservation Education Centre (UWEC).

As chimpanzees are mammals that are considerably intelligent, and humans closest genetic relative on Earth, they have complex social behavioural systems. These behavioural systems are changing as their habitat is receding and their survival is already becoming more and more difficult. There is evidence of chimpanzees who live further away from roads having more neutral and less aggressive behaviour towards humans compared to chimpanzees closer to densely populated areas[10]. This is likely due to the fact that since they have less firsthand negative experiences with humans, so they are unaware of the risks and will not initiate attacks. These populations of chimpanzees with less history of human interactions can be studied and researched in hopes of finding helpful conservation solutions as a baseline in comparison to chimpanzee populations closer to urban areas[10]. Chimpanzees encountering human researchers in forested areas tend to not initially respond in a threatening way, however eighteen percent of the time the chimpanzees responded with intense agitation or alarm[11]. Furthermore, in encounters in forested areas there have been cases in Bulindi of chimpanzees collaborating and mobbing humans in targeted attacks[11]. However, different groups of chimpanzees act differently depending on circumstances and proximity to urban areas. Chimpanzees already adapt to increased road use and construction by becoming wary and showing evidence of them protecting each other around areas of previous vehicular deaths of fellow chimpanzees[9]. This is evidence of positive improvements of coexistance being possible. Conversely, negative experiences and attitudes from local people in Bulindi, Uganda and similar areas from previous chimpanzee attacks, especially ones on small children creates a snowball effect of humans trapping or killing chimpanzees in retaliation. Then chimpanzees will also fight back and attack which is ultimately not good for their long term survival as they are already endangered and people do not put up with aggressive attacks from the apes especially when it threatens their children[11].

Current Remediation

There are currently many initiatives taking place in Bulindi to stop human chimpanzee conflict. The negative changes in chimpanzee behavior are occurring alongside major land use changes, so habitat conservation needs to be addressed in order to prevent human-chimpanzee conflict[7]. The Bulindi Chimpanzee & Community Project (BCCP) was founded in 2015 to address chimpanzee-human conflict in the Budongo-Bugoma corridor. Their main goals are to conserve chimpanzees and their habitat, and restore degraded land while enhancing the well being of local families in order to build a sustainable coexistence between chimpanzees and humans[12]. They currently operate in 300 villages and have a research team that monitors chimpanzee populations[13].

Slowing deforestation

The Bulindi Chimpanzee & Community Project has many programs to prevent deforestation. The forests in the Budongo-Bugoma corridor are small, owned by local households, and don't have formal protection. The local communities clear forests for agriculture and timber due to poverty. and a growing population, however this also leads to more conflict with chimpanzees[12]. Despite the ongoing conflict with chimpanzees, only 9% of residents surveyed said that the forest should be protected in order to stop conflict[7]. To address this the BCCP has programs to incentivize and help local communities to preserve their forests[12]. They have a payment for ecosystem services (PES) program that sponsors the schooling of the children in households that own forest and are willing to conserve it. Through this program the BCCP is sponsoring the schooling of 90 families who together conserve over 300 acres of land[13]. This program is very successful because it reduces deforestation and allows for the natural regeneration of the forests, which are important habitats for chimpanzees. Making schooling available for families also helps to improve the overall wellbeing of the community. The BCCP also aims to slow deforestation by building energy efficient stoves so that less wood is needed to cook[13]. Offering ways to stop or slow deforestation will help protect chimpanzee habitat and limit the interactions that the locals will have with chimpanzees.

Tree planting

Eucalyptus Plantation in Uganda

The Bulindi Chimpanzee & Community Project also plants trees to increase chimpanzee habitat. The BCCP has also planted over 7 million trees in partnership with 1,000s of farmers. They plant native trees and fast growing trees like eucalyptus[13]. These trees can serve as chimpanzee habitat while also providing timber for the local communities. Coffee is also planted because it is a cash crop that isn’t eaten by chimpanzees. Increasing the chimpanzee habitat in the corridor through tree planting helps prevent chimpanzee-human interactions, leading to less conflict. Tree planting also provides new jobs, and planting coffee offers a new income source to farmers that won't be threatened by chimpanzees[13]. These programs provide an example of how conservation is beneficial for both humans and chimpanzees, and is an important step in stopping the conflict.

Additional programs

In addition to programs that address the destruction of chimpanzee habitat, the BCCP also has programs that aim to educate local communities about chimpanzees and prevent conflict. The BCCP has education programs in schools to talk about chimpanzee behavior and how to avoid conflict with the chimpanzees. They also have built over 60 wells in non-chimpanzee habitat so people don’t have to enter chimpanzee habitat to get water from streams. Many people have to enter the forest, which is chimpanzee habitat, to get water which can be dangerous, especially for children. The BCCP also helps farmers establish chicken farms in order to reduce conflict. Chimpanzees won’t hurt chickens so this helps to provide a more stable income source for farmers than growing crops which can be eaten by chimpanzees[13]. The Bulindi Chimpanzee & Community project has many programs which aim to conserve chimpanzee habitat, restore forests, and decrease interactions between chimpanzees and humans while improving the social and economic well being of communities in the Budongo-Bugoma Corridor.

The Path Forwards

Protected areas

Chimpanzee in Budongo National forest

The main driver of chimpanzee-human conflict in the region has been land use change[7]. Population growth in the region has led to deforestation and infrastructure growth, both of which decrease chimpanzee habitat. Establishing protected areas for great ape conservation has been successful in many places[14]. When surveyed some residents of the area suggested moving the chimpanzees to protected areas[7]. However, moving animals to protected areas is very expensive and time consuming, and the stress from moving the chimpanzees could be lethal for them[15]. The chimpanzee habitat in the Budongo-Bugoma corridor is too interspersed with human communities for the establishment of protected areas in the corridor to be a viable option for the chimpanzees. Because of this further conservation efforts should focus on solutions that promote coexistence between chimpanzees and humans.

Ecotourism

Ecotourism is a proposed solution to helping humans and chimpanzees coexist in human dominated landscapes. Tourism can make conservation a priority for local communities because they will benefit from the economic benefits of ecotourism. The economic benefit of tourism also helps to fund more conservation efforts[14]. However, the economic benefits of tourism are often unevenly distributed in communities[15]. Tourism could also lead to an increase in interactions with humans which could cause more negative human-chimpanzee interaction[7]. Tourism can help to conserve chimpanzee habitat and encourage locals to participate in conservation, but there would need to be planning to ensure that tourism truly benefits all humans and chimpanzees in the region.

Community based conservation

The Bulindi Chimpanzee & Community Project (BCCP) has been successful in stopping deforestation and leading tree planting initiatives[13]. Further work to help restore the forests in Bulindi will decrease human-chimpanzee interactions, leading to less conflict. Addressing the economic needs behind the activities that lead to deforestation will also help decrease deforestation in the region[13]. Infrastructure planning can also help reduce chimpanzee-human conflict in the region. For example installing more speed bumps on roads can reduce the danger of car collisions to chimpanzees[9]. Planting crops that are unpalatable for chimpanzees, like cocoa, in parts or all of fields is another proposed solution. This will decrease chimpanzee-human interactions while also ensuring farmers don’t suffer economically from chimpanzees, however it only works when the crops are economically viable[15]. Even with deforestation decreasing there is a lack of chimpanzee habitat that necessitates planning for increasing positive chimpanzee-human interactions.

The Bulindi Chimpanzee & Community Project has many successful initiatives to promote peaceful coexistence for humans and chimpanzees. In order to have long term success conservation projects need to include local communities and support their needs, as well as the needs of wildlife[15]. The BCCP has successfully started programs that support both chimpanzees and humans in the region, so ensuring future support and funding for these programs is imperative. In the Bulindi Region it is unlikely that natural forests will regenerate to a point where chimpanzees aren’t reliant on foraging in and near villages, so finding ways to have peaceful coexistence in the region will be necessary[15]. The population of the region, as well as the human infrastructure will continue to grow, making programs like the BCCP that find ways to peacefully coexist very important.

Conclusion

In conclusion, to settle the intense conflicts and concerns between chimpanzees and humans it is essential to understand the behaviour of chimpanzees, the drivers of human-chimpanzee conflict and resolutions. First, it is important to recognize chimpanzees' adaptive behaviour which allows them to survive near humans as well as the intense deforestation and forest degradation that is pushing chimpanzees to live near human communities. The main drivers of human-chimpanzee conflicts in Uganda are road construction and accidents associated with this linear infrastructure, hunting and violence as there are cases where chimpanzees have killed humans, and negative attitudes towards chimpanzees as they destroy crops and agricultural production. These conflicts are taken seriously with projects such as the Bulindi Chimpanzee & Community Project being an excellent example of an initiative working towards long term peace and protection for both chimpanzees and human populations. This is an extremely important topic for conservation as human populations continue to expand and the future of chimpanzees depend on how these conflicts are handled.

References

  1. ↑ World Wildlife Fund. (n.d.). Deforestation and forest degradation. https://www.worldwildlife.org/our-work/forests/deforestation-and-forest-degradation
  2. ↑ Colson, D. & Muhanguzi, G. (n.d.). Investigating threats to chimps in Uganda. Earthwatch Institute. https://earthwatch.org/stories/investigating-threats-chimps-uganda
  3. ↑ Vega, J. A., Suazo, J., Smalley, S. V., Cataldo, L. R., Cubillos, G., & Santos, J. L. (2014). Subspecies identification of chimpanzees Pan troglodytes (Primates: Hominidae) from the National Zoo of the Metropolitan Park of Santiago, Chile, using mitochondrial DNA sequences. Journal of Threatened Taxa, 6(5), 5712–5717. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.o3611.5712-7
  4. ↑ Chimpanzee Sequencing and Analysis Consortium. (2005). Initial sequence of the chimpanzee genome and comparison with the human genome. Nature, 437(7055), 69–87. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04072
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 McLennan, M. R., Hyeroba, D., Asiimwe, C., Reynolds, V., & Wallis, J. (2012). Chimpanzees in mantraps: Lethal crop protection and conservation in Uganda. Oryx, 46(4), 598–603. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605312000592
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 McLennan, M. R., Hintz, B., Kiiza, V., Rohen, J., Lorenti, G. A., & Hockings, K. J. (2020). Surviving at the extreme: Chimpanzee ranging is not restricted in a deforested human‐dominated landscape in Uganda. African Journal of Ecology, 59(1), 17–28. https://doi.org/10.1111/aje.12803
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 McLennan, M. R., & Hill, C. M. (2012). Troublesome neighbours: Changing attitudes towards chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in a human-dominated landscape in Uganda. Journal for Nature Conservation, 20(4), 219–227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnc.2012.03.002
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 McCarthy, M.S., Lester, J.D. & Stanford, C.B. (2016). Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) Flexibly Use Introduced Species for Nesting and Bark Feeding in a Human-Dominated Habitat. Int J Primatol 38, 321–337. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-016-9916-y
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 McLennan, M. R., & Asiimwe, C. (2016). Cars kill chimpanzees: Case report of a wild chimpanzee killed on a road at Bulindi, Uganda. Primates, 57(3), 377–388. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-016-0528-0
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Hicks, T. C., Roessingh, P., & Menken, S. B. J. (2012). Reactions of Bili-Uele Chimpanzees to Humans in relation to their distance from roads and villages. American Journal of Primatology, 74(8), 721–733. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.22023
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 McLennan, M.R. and Hill, C.M. (2010), Chimpanzee responses to researchers in a disturbed forest–farm mosaic at Bulindi, western Uganda. Am. J. Primatol., 72: 907-918. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.20839
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Bulindi Chimpanzee & Community Project. (2025, January 15). Protecting chimpanzees, supporting communities: The Bulindi story. https://bulindichimpanzees.org/blog/empowering-local-communities-for-chimpanzee-conservation-the-bulindi-story
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 13.6 13.7 Bulindi Chimpanzee & Community Project. (n.d) About the Project. https://bulindichimpanzees.org/project
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Mitani, J. C., Abwe, E., Campbell, G., Giles-Vernick, T., Goldberg, T., McLennan, M. R., Preuschoft, S., Supriatna, J., & Marshall, A. J. (2024). Future coexistence with great apes will require major changes to policy and practice. Nature Human Behaviour, 8(4), 632–643. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01830-x
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 Bersacola, E., Hockings, K. J., Harrison, M. E., Imron, M. A., Bessa, J., Ramon, M., de Barros, A. R., Jaló, M., Sanhá, A., Ruiz-Miranda, C. R., Ferraz, L. P., Tabeli, M., & McLennan, M. R. (2023). Primate Conservation in Shared Landscapes. In: McKinney, T., Waters, S., Rodrigues, M.A. (Eds) Primates in Anthropogenic Landscapes. Developments in Primatology: Progress and Prospects. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11736-7_10  


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