Ryekolal Raphie, AfricaNews reporter in Kampala, Uganda
The Ugandan government is planning to export over 300 monkeys that are destroying lucrative palm fruit plantation in the Kalangala District of the Lake Victoria islands in Uganda to Russia. However, critics have condemned the move saying the measure would harm tourism.

According to Zahra Abigaba & Al-Mahdi Ssenkabirwa Palm oil growers in Kalangala District, the move is to save the monkeys’ lives instead of killing them.
"We were planning to issue licenses to companies that will sell them overseas," said the Tourism Minister Sarapio Rukundo
The minister added: “We have plans to start giving out licenses to some people to export them (monkeys) to Russia and in return the country will be getting foreign exchange the same way we reap from local tourism.
“We are going to send our team on the ground to investigate those reports (of killing monkeys) and if we find out that it is true, the perpetrators will be jailed.”
The minister was reacting to media reports that authorities in Kalangala had sanctioned the extermination of all monkeys to save the oil palm fields on Bugala Islands.
The island is the second largest on Lake Victoria after Ukerewe and has 67,000 acres. Monkeys in the area help themselves on ripe palm fruits - something that has left many farmers in the area counting hefty losses.