Musinguzi takes over as new Executive Director at Uganda Wildlife Authority

By Jonathan Kamoga 

Dr. James Musinguzi has been announced as the new Executive Director of the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) taking over from Mr. Sam Mwandha, who retires on March 31 2025, after serving as Executive Director since 2018.

The announcement was made on Thursday by UWA through a statement confirming that the appointment was made by the Minister of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities, Hon. Tom Butime. 

“Dr. Musinguzi is a dedicated conservationist with extensive experience in wildlife management, conservation education, and community conservation among many others. He previously served as the Executive Director of the Uganda Wildlife Conservation Education Centre (UWEC), where he championed conservation awareness, wildlife rescue, and public engagement,” the statement reads in part.

Following the recent government rationalisation of agencies intended to streamline operations, improve efficiency, and reduce duplication of services which saw, among other agencies, UWEC merged with UWA, Musinguzi was appointed Director of Community Conservation and Ex Situ Wildlife Services, a position he held since October 2024.

In an interview with this publication, Musinguzi listed an array of reforms, targets, and innovations he intends to bring on board to push the conservation authority to greater heights. 

“First, we shall be working on consolidating the achievements and gains of the authority from over the years and then we can look at drawing a new strategic plan, product development to ensure that we increase income which then can be reinvested into conservation,” he said. 

Others, he added, are running stakeholder engagements, management and empowering over 3,000 staff who he says have to feel a sense of ownership in the authority and embracing advanced technology within the authority’s operations. 

As he takes on the mantle in April, Musinguzi, whose immense love for biology drew him into wildlife conservation in his earlier years, will have to deal with a host of challenges that continue to bedevil the authority currently.

Among these are constant poaching in some of the country’s conservation areas that has threatened to deplete endangered species, human wildlife conflicts around parks, land conflicts between the authority and communities living around parks that have caused loss of lives, poor intelligence gathering and lack of innovation in conservation.

“One of the tenets of any leadership is bringing communities in these conservation areas to understand that the presence of the parks is a blessing to them and not a curse,” he said. 

Currently, UWA runs a revenue sharing programme with communities around parks and also does invest in social and economic ventures like schools and startups. 

This is one of the areas which Musinguzi says will be his key focus in making communities appreciate the importance of the parks they live around. 

Others, he added, will be quick and fair compensation of victims of human-wildlife conflicts with help of a mobile application. He also promises to employ technology in the fight against poach, animal census, park surveillance among and payments among others. 

 He added that their is need to tighten intelligence gathering through collaboration with other law enforcement agencies like the police and army so as to curb poaching. 

Who is Musinguzi? 

Musinguzi is a biologist with experience spanning over 25 years.

According to his profile, he is an experienced and strategic team leader with over 15 years experience in strategic planning, training, management, leadership, governance, risk management, environment and social governance, health and safety as well as quality management and sustainability at all levels. 

Born on July 27th 1977 in Kyegegwa district, he started work in 2002 as an administrator in the office of the Academic Registrar at the Mbarara University of Science and Technology located in Western Uganda, where he researched and taught conservation biology. 

In 2006, Musinguzi joined UWEC as an education officer and was later named manager in charge of environment conservation education. 

It was only in December 2010 that he took over as UWEC executive director. Over the years, he has held different international roles including being the vice chairman of the Pan African Association of Zoos and Aquariums. 

He is a member of the conservation and sustainability committee of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums and also a board member of the Chimpanzee Sanctuary and Wildlife Conservation Trust in Uganda.

He is an ISO-certified, trained auditor of PAAZA. 

Musinguzi holds a bachelor’s of science in education (biology) from Mbarara University of Science and Technology, an MBA from Uganda Martyrs University Nkozi, an MSc. in environment conservation from Mbara University of Science and Technology, and a postgraduate diploma in development studies from Mbarara University of Technology. He holds a Doctorate in philosophy (PhD) also from Mbarara University of Science and Technology.