The Mabamba Bay wetland is found on the shores of Africa’s largest freshwater lake – Lake Victoria in Wakiso District, and covers a total area of 16,500 hectares. It is among the best places to enjoy a Uganda Birding Safari and among the species you will see the Shoebill Stork. This large swamp extending through a prolonged narrow bay, surrounded with Cyperus-papyrus towards Lake Victoria. There exists a thin water channel and a tiny area of Ladium mariscus and Nymphea caerulea and occasionally shifting papyrus swamp islands. This Bay is part of the Waiga bay is found southwest of Uganda’s International Airport in Entebbe and receives an average of 1300mm of rainfall annually.
Within this area, amazing nature walks are conducted during which you will be able to see various birds especially the rare shoebill stork
The Biodiversity of Mabamba Swamp
Within this area, amazing nature walks are conducted during which you will be able to see various birds especially the rare shoebill stork
The swampy nature of Mabamba offers a great habitat to a large diversity of birds. The swamp has a bird more than 300 birds, among which is the internationally most sought after Shoebill stork, several migrants like the Blue Swallow, Papyrus Yellow Warbler, White-winged Tern, Papyrus Gonolek and the Gull-billed Tern, the Goliath Heron, Spur-winged Goose, Squacco Heron and Lesser Jacana.
Other wildlife you will see in mabamba swamp include commonly hunted Sitatunga and the shrews shrew Crocidura selina, in addition to more than 200 species of butterflies
Among the fish species here are: the Tilapia zillii, Nile perch (Lates niloticus) and Nile Tilapia
Uses of the Swamp To the local people
Besides the various bird species there are various activities related to the fisheries industry and so you will find some people catching fish for home consumption and others for commercial purposes. Other people use some of the fish product as raw materials for building and making local crafts; the water is used domestically in home as well as fed to their livestock. The local also obtain some herbs from this swamp which they use for medicinal purposes
The Local Community living around this Site
The local community living here are at the forefront of conserving the Mabamba bay. They formed a Support Group, which is dictated to conserving as well as sustainably using the Natural resources here. the Site Support Group is a group of local people staying in this community who are given the responsibility of safeguarding IBAs and at the same time sustainably use the resources available in for their survival. Nature Uganda a partner with BirdLife in Uganda whose role is to promote the conservation of Important Birding Area (IBAs) within Uganda. The Mabamba Site support group is known as the Mabamba Wetland Eco-Tourism Association -MWETA. This is an umbrella group consisting of 3 Community based Organizations that operate at Mabamba bay. Some of the Mabamba Bird Guides & Conservation Associations include Mabamba Wetland Crafts Association – MAWECA and the Zziba Wetland Management Association – ZIWEMA. The main objective of MWETA is to create a responsible community that will benefit from the natural resources that are available and conscious of its capacity to provide for the generations to come. Its objective is to conserve Mabamba Bay’s biodiversity by means of increased generation of sustainable income, higher community awareness as well as improved monitoring of the biodiversity. This group is engaged in a number of conservation activities including awareness and education, habitat protection, tourism, transport facilities and crafts. It is registered with the Local-District Government and the members here voluntarily run its activities.
