Rwanda’s Gorilla Tourism Under The Microscope

July 25, 2008 Environment

With an ever increasing population density and need for agricultural land, the gorilla park in Rwanda has been under great threat from the expansion of neighbouring communities. As a result the park area has almost halved in size from 340km2 to only 160 km2.

Threats from neighbouring communities include encroachment in search for agricultural land, bush meat, and honey collection leading to forest fires; water collection; bamboo cutting and baby gorilla trafficking among others.  Around the park there is a population density of approximately 500 people/km2, creating enormous pressure on park resources. If we do not provide an alternative source of income for these communities tourism may soon dry up as the gorilla park continues to shrink in size.

Mountain gorilla tourism in the Parc National des Volcans provides more than 80% of tourism income for the national economy, giving the government a great incentive to protect the park using policing methods. However if government efforts are to be sustained a few critical questions need to be answered: To what extent do communities threaten the park and its resources? Do community members have an incentive to protect the park? Do they have alternative sources of livelihood? How well can we involve them in conservation efforts and help them benefit from this natural resource?

There are a number of ways: Tourism to the park is currently monopolized by private domestic and international companies, if the local community were included in this industry then income levels in the surrounding villages could be increased. Involving and enabling communities to develop tourism based enterprises so that they can benefit from the mountain gorilla tourist market is one such strategy for sustaining local involvement with the park. Rwanda Eco-Tours is aiming to contribute to this effort by sharing its profits from tours and other tourism related businesses with local community projects that promote conservation of the park, and support a change in livelihood for the neighbouring population. We are doing this because we believe that as Rwandans, we should be the primary agents of conservation and encourage co-existence of wildlife and people.