Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment
Assessing climate change vulnerability within Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda, to support improved management interventions.
Climate change severely impacts Uganda's wildlife by threatening biodiversity, altering animal migration patterns, and degrading habitats through rising temperatures, erratic rainfall, and extreme weather events like floods and droughts.
The project addresses a key gap: landscape-level vulnerability within protected areas is poorly understood, which can lead to interventions with limited conservation outcomes.
This project began in 2025 and is being conducted within Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda, with the aim of contributing knowledge relevant to effective conservation at landscape level.
Why this project matters
Climate change affects wildlife and habitats through rising temperatures, erratic rainfall, and extreme weather events such as floods and droughts. These impacts can contribute to habitat loss, water shortages, increased wildfires, and spread of invasive species.
Such pressures can reduce wildlife populations and increase extinction risks for numerous species, including iconic animals like elephants and hippos.
The gap being addressed
The level of climate vulnerability at landscape level within protected areas is poorly understood. This can result in conservation interventions that achieve limited outcomes.
Project focus
The project seeks to contribute knowledge that supports effective, landscape-level conservation and improved management interventions within Queen Elizabeth National Park.
- Study site: Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda
- Project start: 2025
- Funding: Government of the Republic of Uganda through Uganda Wildlife Research and Training College (UWRTC)