A plan to kill monkeys on a group of Lake Victoria islands in Uganda in order to protect lucrative palm fruits was condemned on Thursday by critics who said the measure would harm tourism.
Palm crops on Kalangala islands have been destroyed as the monkey population has exploded, according to Nelson Basaalidde, who heads the Oil Palm Growers Trust.
"The issue is very, very serious right now. You can say (monkeys) are affecting 100 percent of some people's crops. That's why the district has come up with this policy," he told AFP.
Farmers prefer less drastic tactics like scaring the monkeys away from the fruits using dogs, or capturing them and tying bells around their necks to be alerted when the primates are coming.
But the situation has worsened and local authorities declared the primates as vermin, making it legal to kill them.
Local government official David Balironda said the current policy is to pay one dollar for every monkey killed, payable upon presentation of the dead primate's tail.
Currently there are more monkeys than the 35,000 residents of the picturesque islands, a key tourist attraction for primate watching.
However, the measure to kill the monkeys has been rejected by other officials.
"Of course we cannot support killing monkeys. There are so many ways that people can benefit from wildlife," Uganda Wildlife Authority spokeswoman Lillian Nsubuga said.
"How many are you going to kill? When does it end? If there is a problem with the crops then we are prepared to sit down with anybody to come up with a solution."
Local member of parliament Ruth Nvumetta said the problem exists because farmers cut down all the forests to expand their fields, destroying the monkeys's habitat.
But the dollar-per-tail scheme is unlikely to kick off because local officials said they had no money to pay monkey hunters.
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