By Witness Radio team.
Uganda’s drive to exploit oil in protected areas is putting one of the country’s most valuable economic pillars, “tourism,” at serious risk, new research warns.
A report by the Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO), titled “Those Oil Liars! They Destroyed My Business!”, reveals that oil activities are displacing wildlife, degrading biodiversity, and driving away tourists, cutting off livelihoods for thousands of Ugandans who depend on the sector for survival.
Between February and July 2025, the Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO) conducted community-based research in oil host communities targeting tourism stakeholders to assess the perceptions and attitudes that they have towards Uganda’s oil and gas industry.
According to tourism stakeholders who took part in the research, oil activities are making life more complicated rather than better. “Instead of creating opportunities, oil development has made life tougher,” a business owner in Buliisa told AFIEGO researchers. “Fewer tourists are coming, costs are rising, and our wildlife is disappearing.”
Tourism is one of Uganda’s largest foreign exchange earners, contributing UGX 6.06 trillion to the country’s GDP in 2024, about 3.2% of the total, according to the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities. The sector is also a leading employer, supporting hotels, guides, drivers, restaurants, and countless small businesses.
But AFIEGO’s community-based research found that this sector’s survival hinges on intact ecosystems now threatened by oil roads, pipelines, and drilling inside national parks and biodiversity hotspots.
Respondents pointed to Murchison Falls National Park and Queen Elizabeth National Park as high-risk zones where multinational companies such as TotalEnergies are already advancing projects. The report warns that such developments bring habitat destruction, increased poaching, and rising operational costs for tourism businesses.
The Survey results reveal a hidden chain of risks linking oil development to environmental degradation and economic decline. Only 13.5% of stakeholders explicitly named oil as a threat, yet 61.3% pointed to oil-related impacts on biodiversity loss, climate change, and infrastructure in protected areas as significant risks to their livelihoods. Crucially, 29.7% warned that these environmental harms could drive tourists away, eroding jobs and revenue. If these impacts unfold, tourism would shrink and ecosystems would degrade, triggering a vicious cycle: lost income and collapsing natural resources that communities depend on for long-term survival.
The participants stressed that tourism’s future depends on safeguarding nature. “Tourism depends on intact ecosystems; protecting national parks and biodiversity hotspots is non-negotiable.” The report revealed.
In addition to damaging protected areas, the respondents also reported exclusion from benefiting directly from oil companies.
“In 2016, those bad liars from the oil sector made a big crusade… They told us, ‘People of Buliisa, build hotels! Workers are coming! They will stay in your hotels! I borrowed money and expanded my hotel…! Since the activities resumed, no oil workers have stayed at my hotel until today. I struggled to pay back the money that I borrowed…! They excited me with promises of money, but they ended up punishing me. The respondent’s reply is in the report.
Another respondent highlighted how local business owners, including restaurant operators, are blocked from supplying food or refreshments to oil company workers:
“I run a refreshments business, but those from the [Tilenga oil project] camp do not buy from me. They don’t give local businesses a chance to supply them.”
She added, “They found me managing and running a hotel and trained me in catering. I even earned two certificates. But when I asked to cook and supply the camp, they refused.”
The report underscores the urgent need for a total ban on drilling in protected areas, strict enforcement of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs), and the creation of buffer zones around national parks and game reserves. These measures are not just recommendations, but immediate actions that the government must take to protect Uganda’s tourism and biodiversity.
It also urges the Ugandan government to rethink oil development plans that overlap with tourism landscapes and further calls for capital and marketing support to strengthen local tourism businesses, particularly micro and small enterprises that form the backbone of community livelihoods.
