The situation is complicated and evolving in each moment, but to help everyone understand the situation, Virunga National Park posted a summary of events and their locations on the website gorilla.cd. We encourage people to follow that website to stay up to date on the situation.

Unfortunately, one ranger has died in the last week.

“The resurgence of war in this area is a high risk for both critically endangered mountain gorillas and humans,” states Dr. Augustin Basabose, Interim Director of the International Gorilla Conservation Programme or IGCP, a coalition of the African Wildlife Foundation, Fauna & Flora International, and the World Wide Fund for Nature.

“Though mountain gorillas are not directly a target of the opposing forces, the bombardments of heavy artillery in their habitat are sure to have a negative impact on their behavior and jeopardize their safety,” Basabose continues. “In addition, rangers who monitor habituated mountain gorilla groups on a daily basis were forced to suspend these activities. It will, therefore, be difficult to get any news on the status of these mountain gorillas until the fighting stops.”

The epicenter of heavy fighting between the rebels and the Congolese Army since Friday, in the Jomba area, is also the epicenter for IGCP community conservation activities as of late. IGCP’s Programme Officer and Country Representative in DRC, Altor Musema, remains in contact with the community associations IGCP works with in the area. “From the information I received this morning, there was no fighting through Sunday night in the Jomba area,” states Musema. “But the situation remains the same today because the rebels are still occupying villages surrounding Bikenge and Jomba patrol posts, including the village of Chanzu, where IGCP is currently constructing one communal and 11 household rainwater harvesting tanks.”

Please note that Chanzu is also known as Cianzu or Cyanzu.

Communal rainwater harvesting tank located in Chanzu, Democratic Republic of Congo, photographed in February 2012.

IGCP has contacted most of the community associations that we work with (associations of beekeepers, associations that repair the buffalo wall, and associations who build household rainwater harvesting tanks) and hear that most people fled to neighboring Uganda as the fighting erupted last Friday and have fortunately stayed safe.

Members of the women's association l’Association des Mamans encadrées par Kacheche pour la Protection des Gorilles des Montagnes work to repair the stone buffalo wall that protects crops growing near Virunga National Park from crop raiding buffalo. Photographed in Chanzu in 2010.

Over 150 rangers have died while on duty in Virunga National Park since 1990 and at least 23 mountain gorillas have been killed in Virunga National Park in this period due to recurrent conflict in the region.

Virunga National Park, Africa’s oldest national park (established in 1925) and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979, is home to approximately 200 of the world’s critically endangered mountain gorillas and a small population of eastern lowland gorillas. Formerly known as Albert National Park, Virunga National Park lies in eastern DR Congo and covers 7,800 square kilometers. The park is managed by the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature, the Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN).

Here is the report of the situation directly from Virunga National Park – http://gorillacd.org/2012/05/09/rebel-militias-enter-mountain-gorilla-sector/

There was a coordinated patrol between Virunga National Park and Volcanoes National Park in an area critical for unhabituated mountain gorillas when the militia entered Mikeno Sector. They have finished the patrol as of yesterday after having destroyed over 100 snares set for antelopes (but which are a danger to mountain gorillas none-the-less). IGCP, on behalf of the Greater Virunga Transboundary Collaboration, had facilitated the coordinated patrol along with the two parks. Yesterday, emergency rations were sent in to the patrols from Volcanoes National Park and plans to get all teams back to their bases safely are underway.

Post any questions you might have about this situation here and we’ll do our best to answer them. More information to come.

The Walk is guided by the local Batwa – an indigenous group of people who formerly lived nomadic lives in the forests of the Great Lakes region of Africa. While on the walk, tourists benefit from the Batwa’s extensive forest knowledge and survival skills, passed from one generation to the next. These skills include harvesting honey and trapping wild animals for food.

More than the opportunity to learn from the Batwa guides’ forest knowledge and survival skills is the opportunity to experience real Batwa culture as well – song and dance, burial and morning, jubilation at a successful hunt. As well as several forest dwellings that are impressive, fun and functional.

There are surprises at every turn.

The unique element of the Buniga Forest Walk is that you meet your Batwa guides in the forest as they lived in times past. But after completing the 1.5 km trail, you have the opportunity to meet your guides as they live today, in their settlement now outside of the forest. At the settlement, guests are welcomed with open arms and a wide range of Batwa handicrafts are for sale by members of the community.

Take an exciting stroll on the Buniga Forest Walk and meet the Batwa then and now!

The Buniga Forest Walk can be booked from the Nkuringo Community Conservation and Development Foundation office in Nkuringo and costs 25 USD per person, regardless of nationality or residency. Fees for the Buniga Forest Walk are allocated at 30% to Kisoro Local Government, and 70% to NCCDF, who pays the community and Batwa guides and reinvests the remaining funds in community conservation and development projects in the local area.

Tourists should allow approximately three to four hours for this activity and the Buniga Forest Walk is classified from an easy to moderate hike on a new and well-developed trail.

That’s exactly what I watched Mr. Kapere Richard, a Mutwa guide do while experiencing the Buniga Forest Walk just prior to its being open for tourists on May 1st. It was with great joy that he demonstrated for us what he was taught by his grandfather, quickly setting snares designed to trap an animal’s foot or neck, and even a snare for crushing the spine of a monkey. It sent a chill down my own spine!

In goes monkey, down goes bone-crushing log (this is a demonstration!).

Kapere Richard's expression after the demonstration.

Being able to demonstrate these skills is extremely important to the Batwa people and to the continuation of their culture because, unfortunately, their forest lifestyle is no longer possible. The forests of the Great Lakes region have diminished. Furthermore, the remaining biodiversity in protected areas in the region is unable to sustain the resource needs for a growing human population. This was the reason why the Batwa were made to leave the protected areas in the region not all that long ago in the early 1990s.

That recent history is another reason why IGCP is involved in projects that empower the Batwa people. Batwa communities are in transition- from life in the forest to life in permanent settlements outside of the forests. This transition is not an easy one and the Batwa are faced with many challenges as well as incidents of discrimination and exploitation by other community members. We owe them support during this transition and, what I am happy to report, we owe them a chance to preserve their rich culture in a way that benefits the forests and wildlife as well as the Batwa themselves.

What I experienced on the Buniga Forest Walk in Nkuringo near Bwindi Impenetrable National Park was magical. Not only is this forest fragment interesting, with its pockets of tree ferns and lobelia, it was something that I experienced along with the Batwa guides themselves and their families. There were surprises at every turn:

This treehouse wasn't the only surprise along the Buniga Forest Walk.

In short, the Buniga Forest Walk was fun for the Batwa guides, which made it all the more fun for me!

IGCP has supported the development of a management plan for the 1 km2 Buniga Forest which is owned by the Kisoro Local Government, and through an agreement, is managed by the Nkuringo Community Conservation and Development Foundation (NCCDF). IGCP, with support from our coalition member WWF in Denmark, also supported the development of the physical trail and training and equipping of the Batwa guides including a study tour to other Batwa cultural experiences in the area.
Now IGCP’s responsibility is to create an identity for the trail, a brochure, and a website, so that tourists will know that the trail exists and have the chance to meet the Batwa in Buniga Forest as well as in their own community. All this in a way that is respectful, authentic, and overall a very enjoyable experience!

Basabose, who has the nickname within IGCP of ‘Daktari’ meaning Doctor in Kiswahili, is now also affectionately referred to as our new silverback. He takes on this new title after Eugène Rutagarama, who served as IGCP’s Director for the last nine years, moved to another role in the organization. Basabose has been with IGCP since 2006, most recently as Species Conservation Coordinator.

Basabose’s celebrated career in began with a surprising research subject – the lowly mosquito. However, a chance encounter with Professor Juichi Yamagiwa from Kyoto University, Japan, changed his career trajectory to the study of Africa’s Great Apes. Basabose has a PhD in zoology from Kyoto University for which he completed a dissertation on chimpanzee ecology in DRC’s Kahuzi-Biega National Park.

Below is a Q&A with the new silverback of IGCP:

Q: Why should mountain gorillas be protected?

A: Despite the conservation efforts which have led to an apparent increase in their overall population, the mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) are still threatened and listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.

The mountain gorilla is only found in three countries in Africa: Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. They are found in two populations: approximately 302 individuals are located in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda (331 km2) while approximately 480 individuals are located in the Virunga Massif (444 km2). The estimated total number of individuals is only 782 in the wild with an additional 4 individuals currently in a sanctuary under the care of the Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature in the Parc National de Virunga (DR Congo).

The main threats that affect populations of mountain gorillas include the loss or modification of their habitat; poaching (killing of individuals for the capture of infants); the effects of war and political instability and diseases transmission.

The mountain gorillas habituated for tourism and research are monitored on a daily basis and in case of life-threatening illness or injury, specially-trained veterinarians intervene. However, we must not turn our backs to those mountain gorillas that are unhabituated and therefore are not given names and monitored daily. They deserve to live out their lives in peace from poaching threats as well.

The bottom line is that mountain gorillas, even with the increase in the population over the last few years, are still vulnerable as a species, a species that so many people around the world care about. While mountain gorillas are so physically strong, they are also very fragile.

Q: What have you learned about conservation during your last six years working with IGCP?

A: I have learned that it is now impossible to conserve wildlife without the participation of local people. We should promote and strengthen the new conservation strategy that seeks to involve local communities in wildlife management.

Community-based conservation shouldn’t be seen as a substitute for protected area approaches, but instead should be designed as part of conservation approaches to integrate into national conservation strategies.

Q: What do you think are the emerging challenges facing conservation of mountain gorillas?

A: Mountain gorillas are surrounded by some of the highest human densities in Africa with human populations around the mountain gorilla parks ranging from 400-1000 people per km2.

The pressure for agricultural land is high and likely to increase with climate change. It is expected that climate change may negative impact on agriculture productivity leading people to exert more pressure on mountain gorilla habitat looking for more productive agriculture land, and thus threatening the survival of mountain gorillas. With respect to climate change, the survival of mountain gorillas is directly tied in with how human beings will adapt to our changing climate and ultimately our very own survival mechanisms.

Disease transmission from humans to gorillas is another emerging challenge facing mountain gorilla conservation. It represents a significant threat to the survival of mountain gorillas due to their close genetic relation to humans and susceptibility to human diseases. Given the small sized and isolated population, any infectious disease may quickly sweep through an entire population.

Q: What is the one thing that you would like to achieve during your time as Interim Director of IGCP?

A: One of the key initiatives that IGCP is working on is in the development of a water strategy and getting it implemented along with our partners in the Virunga-Bwindi landscape. My goal is to see this a reality and ensure that the interventions that IGCP does with water have direct and positive impacts on the conservation of mountain gorillas.

I am also keeping an eye on the projects that I maintain under IGCP’s species conservation approach including getting a functional regional database server installed where regional data related to mountain gorillas and habitat can be entered, stored, updated, secured and easily accessed by all authorized users when they need it.

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Ask your own question to IGCP’s new silverback by posting a comment on this page!

The International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP) has in recent years become increasingly active in providing water to communities living next to the protected areas where the critically-endangered mountain gorillas roam.

IGCP is involved primarily because of the risk posed to the mountain gorillas from habitat degradation and the potential for disease transmission to mountain gorillas. Entering the parks in search of water also happens to be a dangerous thing for the primarily women and children who do this, as they enter without protection from forest buffalo and elephants, or in some cases, other people wishing to cause them harm.

Here are four other things you should know about the work we are doing on water:

1) The need is larger than what IGCP can provide for.

It might seem odd for us to admit this so bluntly, but if we as an organization thought we could do this on our own, then we would be mistaken. The human population density around the protected areas where mountain gorillas live is some of the highest in all of rural Africa- up to 1,000 people per km2 in some areas, and growing.

This is the reason why our water project fits within IGCP’s Advocacy approach. We are advocating for more and better sources of water outside of the parks for people so that they do not have to enter the park to meet this basic need. We therefore hope to stimulate additional investment in water infrastructure by the governments, private sector, and NGOs and donors, as well as the community members themselves.

We are also targeting our actions, identifying areas where people are most dependent on water sources within the park. Recently, Charles Kayijamahe, working under Dr. Augustin Basabose in our Species Conservation approach scoured through ranger-based monitoring (RBM) data from 2006-2010 to target areas for our future interventions.

In fact, there is a team within IGCP from experts in law enforcement, species conservation, as well as community development which weighs in on all the decisions we take around our water project.

Charles compiled this map after sifting through ranger-based monitoring data collected by the three parks.

2) There is (and should be) more than one way to address the need.

IGCP has focused its interventions on rainwater harvesting systems. It is one of the options for supplying water to people and was selected because of the ease of construction even in remote areas and, for the smaller household tanks, community members are able to construct them with local labor and from materials that are largely locally available.

IGCP has supported the construction of five communal rainwater harvesting tanks and 52 household rainwater harvesting tanks. We are currently constructing an addition four communal rainwater harvesting tanks and 20 household rainwater harvesting tanks near the Mikeno Sector of Virunga National Park, DRC.

Based on IGCP’s experience from rainwater harvesting in Rwanda, the construction of satellite household rainwater harvesting systems can relieve the pressure on the communal rainwater tanks, allowing for greater storage of water leading into the dry season.

This communal rainwater harvesting system is in the Kibumba area near Virunga National Park, DRC. This type of communal tank collects water from a concrete slide placed on a slope and the rain water is collected in a stone cistern with taps at the bottom.

IGCP's Conservation Incentives Officer, Benjamin Mugabukomeye checks the functionality of one of the household rainwater tanks constructed near Bunagana, DRC, as part of IGCP's 20 Tanks for 20 Years initiative.

3) The social infrastructure is just as important than the physical infrastructure.

While every rainwater harvesting system is under construction, a community water use committee is also being ‘built’.

This water use committee is extremely important. It is this committee who ensures that the water is equitably available and distributed within the community. It also collects funds for water use and saves them in an account to be used to properly maintain the tank and infrastructure.

The water use committee is also responsible for monitoring water quality on a regular basis and for intervening when an issue does arise, such as immediate threat from debris from erupting volcanoes, which does happen in this region. This water use committee serves as the outreach component on both water managment and water quality as well as larger conservation-related issues; they receive a lot of support and follow-up from IGCP staff.

4) Create financial and technical feedback mechanisms to stimulate additional investment.

Part of stimulating further investment in water infrastructure involves enabling communities to construct the tanks themselves. The money collected by the water use committee is used to maintain the tanks, but also is used in a Village Savings and Loan model so that community members can access small loans related to construction of household rainwater harvesting systems.

Another key aspect of our interventions is the training of community associations in the construction of household rainwater harvesting tanks. While the communal rainwater harvesting tanks require expert engineering knowledge, the construction of household rainwater tanks does not.

IGCP has supported the training of the Rwandan (mostly women) association Imbere Heza, from community trainers from Uganda. And Imbere Heza, in turn, are currently training associations around the Mikeno Sector of Virunga National Park.

So, you may see us writing about water on this blog from time to time, but behind the scenes, this is an intervention that we are working on every day within IGCP, monitoring the work that we have done and using what we learn to plan for the future.

Photo: Members of the patrol collect rope snares destroyed during the recent coordinated patrol. Courtesy of Volcanoes National Park/ Rwanda Development Board.

Last week, a mixed team of rangers from Virunga National Park, DRC, and Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda, conducted a coordinated patrol in the heart of the Virunga Massif in a renewed effort to make the area safe for the critically-endangered mountain gorillas and the other wildlife. According to the Chief Park Warden for Volcanoes National Park, Prosper Uwingeli, the patrol was conducted by 24 individuals including rangers from both parks and community members from areas surrounding both parks.

The International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP)- a coalition of the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), Fauna & Flora International (FFI), and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)- supplied rations to the rangers and community members who conducted this patrol.

Patrol members destroying a recently set rope snare trap on March 15, 2012, in the Virunga Massif. Photo courtesy of Volcanoes National Park/ Rwanda Development Board.

This coordinated patrol, the first of many in a renewed effort to curb the number of snares in this area of the Massif, came out of a meeting facilitated by the Greater Virunga Transboundary Collaboration on February 23, 2012, between Virunga National Park and Volcanoes National Park. The meeting was held in Rumangabo, DRC, and the two parks were represented by Dr. Emmanuel de Merode of Virunga National Park and Uwingeli of Volcanoes National Park. IGCP was represented by Dr. Augustin Basabose, IGCP species conservation coordinator.

“The agreed firm commitment between the two parks to renew efforts in together patrolling mountain gorilla habitat will thwart poachers’ attempts to freely operate in the Virunga Massif, where in recent months at least two young mountain gorillas have been caught in snares. One survived, the other, unfortunately, did not,” comments Basabose. “IGCP is committed to continuing to support these transboundary efforts.”

During the full census of mountain gorillas conducted in the Virunga Massif in 2010, the number of snares encountered by census teams was also recorded. The darker the area, the more snares were encountered. It was in this same heavily snared area that a mountain gorilla was found dead in a snare in early February 2012.

Location of gorilla groups encountered during the census conducted in 2010. Unhabituated groups, those not accustomed to seeing humans for tourism or research are indicated with a triangle. These unhabituated gorillas range in the heart of the Virunga Massif.

2011 marked the 20th anniversary of the founding of the International Gorilla Conservation Program (IGCP) by the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), Fauna & Flora International (FFI), and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). IGCP and its coalition members recently met in celebration of this important milestone, and renewed their commitment to this unique collaboration and to continue to effectively address the ongoing and future challenges to mountain gorilla conservation.

The future context for conservation across the mountain gorilla range presents clear challenges, and requires that IGCP remain innovative and strategic. Following an effective first 20 years, IGCP and its coalition members considered it an appropriate moment to commit to a thorough strategic review.

As of April 1, 2012, Eugène Rutagarama will hand over day-to-day management of IGCP to Dr. Augustin Basabose so that he can lead a task force that will review the role of IGCP in the conservation of mountain gorillas. “Having been involved in the development of IGCP in different positions for the last fifteen years, I feel privileged to dedicate, for the next months, my full attention to a new strategy that will keep IGCP at the forefront of the ever-changing context of mountain gorilla conservation,” states Rutagarama.

This strategic review will be a collaborative process and will involve current and former IGCP staff, representatives from the three coalition members as well as partner organizations and institutions in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda.

“Eugène has provided enlightened leadership for IGCP for the past decade, and his history of and commitment to mountain gorilla conservation extends as far back as the 1980s,” remarks Katie Frohardt, IGCP Board Member and Executive Director of Fauna & Flora International (FFI) in the United States. “We are deeply grateful that he has stepped forward to lead this effort, as there simply is no one better qualified than Eugène – with his expertise, experience, and commitment – to forge a bright new plan for IGCP engagement in support of mountain gorilla conservation for the coming decade.”

Filling the role of Interim Director for IGCP effective April 1, 2012, will be Dr. Augustin Basabose, who currently serves as Species Conservation Coordinator for the organization. “I am excited to work alongside my colleagues within IGCP as well as our many partners in the region in this new role for me in the organization,” says Basabose. “With the ongoing support from the IGCP coalition members in the years to come, I am sure that together we will reach our conservation goals.”

Eugène Rutagarama has been Director of the International Gorilla Conservation Programme since 2003, and has been with the organization for more than fifteen years.

Dr. Augustin Basabose, currently IGCP's Species Conservation Coordinator, will serve as Interim Director as of April 1, 2012.

The technical team of IGCP based in Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda. Back from left to right: Benjamin Mugabukomeye, Eugene Rurangwa, and Altor Musema. Seated from left to right: Anna Behm Masozera, Eugène Rutagarama, Beda Mwebesa, Wellard Makambo, Augustin Basabose, and Stephen Asuma. Not pictured is Maryke Gray.

The male mountain gorilla, estimated to be approximately three years old, was determined to have been dead for a few days before it was found. A post mortem exam conducted by the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project and veterinarians with the Rwanda Development Board revealed that the mountain gorilla was dehydrated and its stomach empty, pointing to the likelihood that the gorilla struggled with the snare for several days before dying. The rope snare was set to trap a small antelope for wild meat.

“It is a heart-breaking thing to see a mountain gorilla dead after struggling due to an act by a human being,” said Eugène Rutagarama, Director of the International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP); a coalition of the African Wildlife Foundation, Fauna & Flora International, and the World Wide Fund for Nature. There are only an estimated 780 mountain gorillas in the world, and the species is designated as critically endangered.

Habituated gorillas, accustomed to the regular presence of people for tourism or research, are monitored on a daily basis and given on-site veterinary treatment in the case of a life-threatening injury or illness. Unhabituated gorillas, on the other hand, do not receive these direct protection benefits, but are protected through law enforcement, like anti-poaching patrols within the parks, as well as incentivizing conservation in communities living around the park, two important efforts supported by IGCP.

The mountain gorilla found dead on Feb 1 was from an unhabituated group of mountain gorillas, which comprise only 27% of the total population of mountain gorillas in the Virunga Massif, according to the last complete census conducted in 2010.

“This unfortunate incident does not imply that all mountain gorillas should be habituated so that they can be guarded on a daily basis,” cautions Rutagarama. “This incident does, however, stimulate us to take immediate action to strengthen law enforcement in this area and to collectively strengthen our work to encourage people and communities in the Virunga landscape to reject and condemn poaching.”

According to Volcanoes National Park, one poacher has been arrested and three more are being pursued in collaboration with Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the last few months, an unusually high number of snares have been found in the area between Visoke and Sabyinyo volcanoes, an area shared by the two parks.

The Virunga Massif is a transboundary protected area incorporating the Mikeno Sector of Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda, and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park in Uganda. As a transboundary protected area, mountain gorillas move between the three countries. As a transboundary protected area, collaboration among the three parks is crucial for the long-term survival of mountain gorillas.

Photo: Courtesy of the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project

Patience translated the question to me with a sparkle in his eyes and a smile on his face. It was this moment that we had been waiting for- the moment in which we knew the wheels were turning in Emmanuel’s head.

A few hours earlier, as we had all walked up to the edge of Volcanoes National Park, climbing the lower slopes of Visoke, Emmanuel Turatsinze (above left) had told me about the activities he does in the environmental club at his school. He had also told me all about why poaching is bad and why it’s important to the local and national economy to protect mountain gorillas. His responses were a testament to the extent that the conservation message has permeated the schools, but it was also very obviously a ‘canned’ response.

Wageni, the second silverback in the Ugenda group came down the trail as we came up. He proudly demonstrated in front of us, which was in contrast to Ugenda, the dominent silverback in the group, who couldn't have cared less that we were there visiting the group of 14 gorillas.

But now, thanks to his experience in seeing the gorillas, in going for the first time into the park, he started to think about how things worked- both the forest as well as tourism. What followed his question was a discussion about the fragility of the health of mountain gorillas and how to keep the individuals and the family healthy, they need to have habitat in which to roam, sleep, and eat. “Otherwise, if we forced them to be where we wanted for our convenience, in 20 years or less, these gorillas would be gone,” explained Patience. To this, Emmanuel nodded with a serious look on his face and went back to watching Ugenda lounge with other members of his group.

Aliance Gateyeneza, student in Kampanga Secondary School was among 28 from her school visiting mountain gorillas in Volcanoes National Park on January 27, 2012. Here she is with the Ugenda family group of gorillas.

Emmanuel went to visit mountain gorillas with three fellow students as well as their chemistry teacher, Jean Felix Muhire. They were all very inquisitive. So inquisitive that we spent about an hour at the park boundary before we went in to see the gorillas. And we spent another hour or more outside the park boundary after the visit, discussing all aspects of conservation.

Patience was amazing with the students. He told them about how he went into the park for the first time when he was 12, to hike to the top of Visoke to see the crater lake, after convincing his mother that he wasn’t crazy for wanting to go in the park. Now he’s not only a guide in Volcanoes National Park, but also a member of the executive committee of SACOLA, the community association who owns the Sabyinyo Silverback luxury lodge and uses income for community development and conservation projects.

Patience Dusabimana, guide in Volcanoes National Park, was the perfect mentor for the students that visited today. He himself went into the forest when he was 12 thanks to a school trip, and never stopped.

We talked about the challenges that Volcanoes National Park is facing- population density, degraded habitat, small park size. We talked about the need to think of new ways to provide for both the growing human population and the growing mountain gorilla population, so both populations could be healthy and strong.

But most importantly we talked about how conservation needed their ideas and energy now as well as in the years to come, and it was a duty that they all soberly and excitedly agreed to take on.

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The International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP) is sponsoring Rwandan secondary school students and their teachers to visit the mountain gorillas in Volcanoes National Park thanks to a grant from the Annenberg Foundation through the IGCP coalition member, the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF). So far, 450 Rwandans from secondary schools neighboring the park have visited mountain gorillas through this program and hundreds more have visited other park attractions such as the endangered golden monkeys and the crater lake on Visoke. The project began in 2011 and will continue through 2012.