Wildlife Jurisprudence in Uganda: A Systematic Review of Laws, Institutions and Protected Area Systems

Uganda is among the most biologically significant countries on the African continent, hosting more than half of the world's remaining mountain gorillas, approximately 5,000 chimpanzees, over 1,000 bird species, and unique ecosystems spanning Afromontane forests, savannah, and the Albertine Rift — one of Africa's foremost biodiversity hotspots. Wildlife-based tourism contributed UGX 2.7 trillion (4.7% of GDP) and supported over 620,000 jobs in 2022, underscoring the sector's centrality to national development. Governing this extraordinary natural heritage demands an evolving multi-layered legal architecture, yet no systematic doctrinal analysis of Uganda's complete wildlife legal framework has been published in the post-Uganda Wildlife Act Cap. 315 era. This paper presents a systematic review of Uganda's wildlife governance framework, mapping the constitutional foundations, substantive and subsidiary legislation, policy instruments, regional and international treaty obligations, institutional architecture, and the formal hierarchy of wildlife protected areas. A total of 19 primary legislations, 12 policy documents, 11 international treaties, and 32 secondary sources met the inclusion criteria and were reviewed. The review finds that Uganda's wildlife jurisprudence is anchored in a sophisticated multi-level legal architecture, with notable strengths including the constitutional trusteeship of wildlife, the domestication of treaties, and the establishment of a specialised wildlife court. However, challenges persist as incomplete subsidiary legislation, post-RAPEX institutional ambiguity, enforcement capacity constraints, underdeveloped transboundary governance frameworks, and the absence of climate change and zoonotic disease provisions in the Uganda Wildlife Act. Priority recommendations include expediting outstanding subsidiary legislation, conducting a post-RAPEX institutional mandate review, and strengthening transboundary conservation for shared ecosystems. The paper is intended as a baseline doctrinal reference for legal scholars, policymakers, conservation practitioners, and judicial officers engaged with wildlife law in Uganda and the wider East African region.