USAID-STAR and UWA team have kicked-off preparations for the development of a high quality website for the Uganda Wildlife Authority.
USAID-STAR and UWA Team Starts Content Collection for the New Uganda National Parks Website.
USAID-STAR and UWA team have kicked- off preparations for the development of a high quality website for the Uganda Wildlife Authority. The new Uganda Parks website is to be the most robust of any national parks in Africa and will be an extensive resource for travelers and conservation experts. This project is vital as it acts as a destination website for most of all the key high biodiversity areas that tourists come to see in Uganda. The team is made of UWA Officials, USAID STAR technical advisors, and a local film and photograph team from Promote Uganda Consultant Firm.
The aim is to create a unique and comprehensive website covering all ten of the country’s national parks, combining information about conservation, communities and wildlife, with details of tourism activities such as game drives, launch trips, gorilla tracking and wildlife monitoring. The site will emphasize the links between conservation and tourism and promote each of the parks through well-researched texts, professional photography and short video clips.
Program kicked off by USAID-STAR engaging local expertise and UWA staff discussing and developing a tourism itinerary planning using maps and travel guidebooks and research skills; travel writing skills; photography and videographer for tourism and wildlife documentation. Workshop surveys and interaction with trainers and trainees showed a significant increase in knowledge in these key areas.
In addition, USAID STAR worked closely with the UWA’s current web manager and other members of the UWA marketing team to develop the new website site map which is a guide for the new architecture and navigation for the new website. This participatory process will ultimately ensure accuracy in the web content planning and allow the UWA ownership of the final website once complete. The Executive Director of UWA approved the site map on December 8th and work is progressing on the website design and functional modules.
A photo competition, as part of this website program, was flagged off this week by Professor Ephraim Kamuntu, Minister of Tourism, Wildlife and Heritage at the Entebbe Airport where he proclaimed great appreciation to USAID-UGANDA. The minister said: “We are here today to unveil the new branding at Entebbe International Airport (co-branded with USAID-STAR), which is the main gateway for visitors into the country. The new branding showcases country’s rich natural heritage and the importance of tourism to transform this economy. Today, we will also unveil a partnership to develop a more robust website which will enhance our marketing of the varied attractions and share conservation information. We are also launching the “Pics for Parks” photo competition to encourage and enable people share their best memories of Uganda’s beauty and participate in building a photo bank.”
USAID STAR, UWA and Promote Uganda Team will be visiting the Murchison Falls National Park, Kibale Forest and Semuliki National Park. The team will later continue to the Rwenzori Mountains, Queen Elizabeth National Park, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park as well as the Lake Mburo National Park. In January they will visit Kidepo Valley and Mount Elgon to complete the content for the website.
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