The International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP) was launched in 1991 as a joint collaboration of its founding Coalition Members (CM), the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), Fauna & Flora International (FFI), and WWF. This unique partnership was formed to better address increasing threats to the long-term survival of critically endangered mountain gorillas and their increasingly fragile and encroached habitat. The partnership also incorporates the respective Protected Area Authorities (PAAs) of the three countries where mountain gorillas are found: l’Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) in Rwanda, and the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) in Uganda.

At present, IGCP is undergoing a strategic restructuring and review process which will determine more precisely, the form and function that IGCP will take over the next 6 years. Accordingly, IGCP is in need of a dynamic, creative and effective leader to help the CMs finalize this review process and begin to implement an effective new strategy in 2013.

The primary duties of the IGCP Director are:

• To oversee the technical, operational and fund raising activities of IGCP;
• To promote and raise the profile of IGCP on a regional scale and;
• To manage all administrative and field level personnel.

The Director will be the primary link between IGCP and the Governments and PAAs in the three range states and will catalyze future efforts to help strengthen a major IGCP-supported initiative, the Greater Virunga Trans-boundary Collaboration, a trans-boundary initiative led by the PAAs in the three mountain gorilla range countries.

Required qualifications:

• Minimum MSc level in conservation-related field and at least 10 years of experience in conservation-related field, strong bilingual communication skills (written and spoken) – English and French
• Extensive work experience in Africa beneficial

Skills and competencies:

• Strong management and leadership skills required, including proven budgeting and financial management capacity
• Proven experience in programme administration and project implementation; capacity in institutional relationship building
• Proven fundraising record and ability to work effectively in various cultural environments

Location: The position is based in Kigali, Rwanda, with frequent travel throughout the region.

How to apply?

Email a cover letter and CV to Human Resources with the subject line IGCP Director to Email: hresource@wwfesarpo.org

Deadline for applications: 15th April 2013

Kindly note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

CLICK HERE FOR PDF OF JOB ADVERTISEMENT.

Up-to-date, relevant and timely information is an essential prerequisite which enables managers of protected areas to make informed decisions, to monitor and evaluate, and to plan. Use of information is an integral part of effective protected area management. In Volcanoes National Park, Ranger Based Monitoring (RBM) program was initiated in 1998 and has enabled the daily gathering of extensive information on illegal activities, key species of fauna and flora, and habituated and unhabituated groups of gorillas. It has become a habit to organize an annual RBM workshop which assembles all stakeholders to evaluate the annual trends and set priorities of the following year. This year, a 2-day RBM workshop was organized by the Volcanoes National Park from 19 to 20th February 2013 held at Ishema Hotel in Musanze.

This workshop was attended by rangers representing all the five management sectors of the park and representative of each gorilla tracking team. Among representatives were staffs from organizations who support the park in various ways, including DFGFI- Karisoke Research Center, Gorilla Doctors (Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project), and the International Gorilla Conservation Programme.

The objective of this annual workshop was to present the results from RBM data in 2012 to different stakeholders and park staffs including field staffs (trackers, rangers) and discuss on management implication and from that prompts appropriate responses to the park threats

Participant discussing on RBM results.

The first day consisted of the presentation of 2012 RBM results by the Research and Monitoring Warden and Law Enforcement Warden followed by field updates of team leaders of each park management sector and head trackers. A detailed discussion on challenges met was done and adaptive measures agreed on. It was also an opportunity to review RBM data collection sheets and IMPACT sheets (for gorilla health monitoring) where rangers and trackers addressed challenges about filling in these datasheets and got clarifications.

The second day focused on the insight on regional RBM results of the last years, and a brief updates on tourism activities and research activities carried out in 2012. Finally, trackers and rangers were briefed on their role in Park-Community partnership and the ways this role as their daily work depend on the collaboration with local communities around the park.

Rangers had time to present RBM updates from their respective sectors along with challenges met helping all participants to discuss on measures and way forward.

This workshop was organized by the Volcanoes National Park with additional funds from the International Gorilla Programme. A part of the regional RBM workshop which is organized annually by IGCP, these workshops at park level are good opportunity to discuss challenges and way forward in RBM program with ground field staffs (rangers and trackers).

The Ranger Based Monitoring program is supported by IGCP in mountain gorilla habitat in the Virunga-Bwindi Landscape.

Charles Kayijamahe, IGCP Field Officer

To know these differences helps to monitor mountain gorilla population demographic changes and health status of habituated gorillas. Knowing the identities of all individual gorillas in the habituated groups and maintaining a database on the demographic changes of these gorillas is quite important for monitoring the status of all individuals and composition of each habituated group and to detect and accurately report any individual behaviors, illness or injury to management and veterinarians.

In addition, it helps to provide more accurate information on births (natalities), deaths (mortalities) and migrations that can be used in assessing the growth rate of the population. In the same way, the historic information gathered from demography database for each individual and group provide a more meaningful experience for tourists.

In March 2011, the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) in collaboration with Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology, initiated a program aiming at assessing the status of gorilla identification in the habituated gorilla groups and to update the demographic database on all known habituated individuals in Bwindi and Mgahinga Conservation Area.
With IGCP support, a training in gorilla identification was organized in Rubuguli from 28th to 29th January 2013, gathering rangers, trackers and tourist guides of the southern sector of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park as well as from Mgahinga Gorilla National Park. The objective of this two-day training was to equip them with skills used in identification of gorillas using physical features including nose print, physical appearance, deformities and behavior attributes.

The sit-down part of the gorilla ID training.

Participants explaining the group composition of Nkuringo gorilla group with distinguishing features of each individual of the group.

This opportunity was used to provide them with skills in taking high resolution pictures using digital camera and using binoculars which are the main gadgets used in gorilla identification. At the end of the training a practical field work was organized and training participants visited Bweza gorilla group as a way of applying theoretical skills from the training. Although, under a heavy rain, participants were able to identify some gorillas in the group and asked different questions. Participant were requested to use the skills acquired spread the knowledge to their team mates who were not able to attend the training.

The team from the field after being showered by a heavy rain (No picture was take in the park due to the heavy rain).

The International Gorilla Conservation Programme has been supporting this important programme in Virunga-Bwindi Massif, habitat of the remaining mountain gorilla. IGCP is renewing its support to gorilla demography program in Bwindi-Mgahinga Conservation Area and other parks (Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda and Virunga National Park, DRC) in terms of technical support, equipment and training in order to update and sustain the gorilla demography database.

- Charles Kayijamahe, IGCP Field Officer

In the Democratic Republic of Congo side of the Virunga Massif, in Virunga National Park’s gorilla sector, M23 rebels have occupied large portions of the gorilla sector since May of this year. However, recently, the park was able to negotiate to get a small team of specialized rangers into the gorilla sector to check in on the habituated mountain gorilla groups.

Two gorilla groups have thus far been found, with the team in pursuit of the others. The amazing thing is that they are finding a significant number of new infants, a trend that everyone hopes to hold true for all of the habituated (and even non-habituated) mountain gorilla groups in Virunga NP.

In addition, on the Rwanda side of the Virunga Massif, Karisoke Research Center and the Rwanda Development Board have re-initiated routine monitoring of the mountain gorilla groups habituated for research within Volcanoes National Park. Monitoring of the groups was suspended for several days after an anti-poaching patrol post was attacked on December 2nd and tragically one Karisoke staff member, Esdras Nsengiyumva, was killed by gunfire from suspected FDLR rebels.

What is truly impressive, is the level of commitment in the rangers that do this important work, with the full and fresh knowledge of the risks involved. They deserve every once of our collective support.

Goma is also where we have one of our field offices and is the home to five of our staff- two conservationists and three staff members that support their work. Culminating last Monday afternoon through Tuesday, a rebel group known as M23 forcibly took over control of Goma.

In short, it has been a long and weary week.

IGCP is far from alone in this difficult situation. Many conservation organizations have bases in Goma, their staff implementing conservation activities throughout North and South Kivu provinces, in one of the world’s most biologically diverse regions, but also the most threatened due to habitat loss, rampant poaching and resource extraction.

IGCP was fortunate to be able to have a meeting Thursday bringing together Goma staff with some of the Rwanda team, myself included. We met in Rwanda, just across the border from Goma. It was nice to see everyone in person and to be able to put our arms around each other. They and their families survived unharmed. The problems at the moment are lack of electricity and safe water. And, of course, not knowing what may come next. We put plans in place to keep them as safe as possible during this uncertain period.

Despite holding recent witness to the horrors of war, their resiliency is astounding. Then you realize that they have all, unfortunately, been through this before. Conflict has been a continuous thread in this region and is part of the conservation story, and that of the conservation of mountain gorillas.

But despite this, the number of mountain gorillas has been slowly, but steadily climbing over the last few decades. It is a testament to the people, like the ones who endured through this week, who get up in the morning and go to work for conservation, even under some of the world’s worst circumstances. I am honored and humbled to work with them.

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On behalf of our whole team, I also want to say thank you to all of the well wishes we have received over this week. It has really been an encouragement, to say the least. It helps us realize that we are all in this together. Anna

It has been since May that M23 rebels – also referred to as the Congolese Revolutionary Army – have occupied the Mikeno Sector of Virunga National Park, the park’s gorilla sector. The gorilla sector is home to a significant portion of the estimated 480 mountain gorillas in the Virunga Massif including six groups habituated to the presence of humans for tourism and many more unhabituated groups and solitary males.

Virunga National Park rangers have attempted several times to check in on the habituated mountain gorilla groups, with the last contact with the gorillas in early August, but routine monitoring of the mountain gorillas has had to be suspended. The routine monitoring of the mountain gorillas is a vital part of mountain gorilla conservation, allowing for the direct protection of the gorillas and intervention in the case of life-threatening injury or illness.

There was renewed fighting yesterday between the M23 rebels and the Congolese army, at the border of the park’s gorilla sector, raising new concern for the park’s critically endangered mountain gorillas as well as park rangers, their families, and the communities caught in the conflict.

Our coalition partners Fauna & Flora International and WWF have mobilized emergency funds to be used by Virunga National Park during this period as their income stream from tourism, which was growing until this recent conflict, has been cut off. Many thanks to those who have contributed already. More help is needed, however. Please consider a donation direct to the park at http://www.virungacrisis.org/.

Update from Virunga National Park on November 18: http://gorillacd.org/2012/11/18/violent-rebel-and-army-fighting-begins-again/

Banner photo: Stock photo of juveniles in the Kabirizi group of mountain gorillas in Virunga National Park by Maryke Gray/IGCP.

The increase in the Bwindi population since the last census, from 302 in 2006 to 400 in 2011, is attributed to improved censusing techniques of these rare and elusive apes as well as actual population growth.

In this latest census, teams systematically moved through Bwindi not once, but twice, looking for and documenting mountain gorilla night nests and faeces, and collecting faecal samples for genetic analysis. The first sweep was conducted with a small team from February 28 to September 2, 2011 and the second sweep conducted with multiple teams from September 10 to November 3, 2011. With the genetic analysis, scientists were able to determine how many unique groups and individuals were found by the field census teams through both sweeps, in what is referred to as a modified mark recapture method.

In short, the two sweeps of Bwindi allowed census teams to find more gorillas than a single sweep would have. Further, it is likely that some gorillas were missed by field census teams in the 2006 census of Bwindi’s mountain gorillas. But all signs are that this population of mountain gorillas is indeed growing.

Census teams map their route in Bwindi during the census conducted in 2011. Results show that a minimum of 400 mountain gorillas were in Bwindi during the time the census was conducted.

“This method gives us the clearest picture of the status of mountain gorillas in Bwindi that we have yet had,” adds Maryke Gray, Technical Advisor to the International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP; a coalition of the African Wildlife Foundation, Fauna & Flora International, and WWF). “Even with evolving census methods, this result indicates that this population has indeed increased over the last five years, and that is very encouraging for this critically endangered species.”

The Bwindi population of mountain gorillas have been censused four times since 1997.

Mountain gorillas live in social groups and the census results indicate that the 400 mountain gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park form 36 distinct social groups and 16 solitary males. Ten of these social groups are habituated to human presence for either tourism or research and included, at the time of the census, 168 mountain gorillas or 42% of the Bwindi population.

While it was initially planned to include Sarambwe Nature Reserve in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a protected area continuous with Bwindi and therefore potential habitat for the Bwindi population of mountain gorillas, it was not possible to do so due to insecurity in the Sarambwe area at the time of the census.

The estimate of the total world population of mountain gorillas now stands at 880, representing the 400 individuals in Bwindi confirmed in this 2011 census and 480 mountain gorillas in the Virunga Massif confirmed by a census in 2010. Both populations of mountain gorillas have had positive trends in population growth over the last decade.

“In fact, the mountain gorilla is the only great ape whose population is increasing despite continuous pressure on its habitat. This positive trend is due to the strong collaboration among the three countries where mountain gorillas live and the collective efforts on the ground by park staff, surrounding communities and local government, and non-governmental organizations,” adds Dr. Augustin Basabose, Interim Director of IGCP.

The 2011 Bwindi mountain gorilla census was conducted by the Uganda Wildlife Authority with support from l’Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature and the Rwanda Development Board. The census was also supported by the International Gorilla Conservation Programme (a coalition of the African Wildlife Foundation, Fauna & Flora International, and WWF), the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Conservation Through Public Health, the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project, the Institute of Tropical Forest Conservation, and the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International.

This census was funded by WWF-Sweden with supplemental support from Berggorilla & Regenwald Direkthilfe e.V., the Wildlife Conservation Society, and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

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Note: While the Uganda Wildlife Authority uses a figure of 340 mountain gorillas from the 2006 census of mountain gorillas in Bwindi, the International Gorilla Conservation Programme uses the final minimum estimate of 302 mountain gorillas from the same census. The estimate of 302 mountain gorillas in Bwindi in 2006 incorporated the results from the genetic analysis, the first time it was used to verify results from the field census of mountain gorillas, ensuring that each individual was counted once. Source: Guschanski et al. 2009. Counting elusive animals: Comparing field and genetic census of the entire mountain gorilla population of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda. Biological Conservation 142: 290-300.

• Scientific name: Gorilla beringei beringei
• Found in: Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda
• Status: Critically endangered
• Life span: 35-40 years

There are two populations of mountain gorillas:

1. Virunga Massif, which includes Mikeno Sector of the Virunga National Park in DRC, Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda, and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park in Uganda (This population is estimated at 480 individuals as per the last complete census in 2010.)


Virunga Massif population of mountain gorillas over the years, based on censuses of the population. Census methods are evolving and now include genetic analysis to estimate the most accurate population numbers.

2. Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (This population is estimated at 400 individuals as per the last complete census in 2011.)

The Bwindi population of mountain gorillas have been censused four times since 1997. This graph was updated on November 13, 2012, with the release of the 2011 census numbers for Bwindi.

Total world population estimated at around 880 mountain gorillas (Updated Nov 13, 2012).

All of these mountain gorillas are wild, ranging in their own habitat. However, some are habituated to the presence of people for either research or tourism, and some are non-habituated and therefore do not have regular or any contact with people.

Habituation is a process in which a group of gorillas slowly accept and become comfortable with the presence of people within viewing distance of the group. The process of habituation usually takes from two to three years for mountain gorillas.

There are no zoos which have captive mountain gorillas.

There are, as of October 1, 2012, three captive mountain gorillas being cared for at the Senkwekwe Center in Rumangabo, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Data is collected on the habituated mountain gorillas on a daily basis, and if a life-threatening injury or illness is observed, specialized veterinarians are called in to treat the mountain gorillas in situ, or within the park

A complete census can count all the mountain gorillas in a population – both habituated and non-habituated – because the census methods involve the counting and measurements of mountain gorilla night nest and dung. Genetic information extracted from dung samples collected during the census give each individual a unique genetic fingerprint to make sure the same gorilla is not counted twice during the field data collection.

Each individual mountain gorilla makes a fresh nest of vegetation each night, with infants less than three or four years sleeping with their mothers.

Mountain gorillas live in family groups, led by a dominant silverback. Some silverbacks will roam without a group and are referred to as lone silverbacks.

Age Categories for Females:

• Infant – from birth to 3 1/2 years, when the gorilla is weaned from its mother’s milk
• Juvenile – from 3 1/2 years to 6 years, a gorilla that is weaned but not yet reproductively mature
• Sub-adult – from 6 years to 8 years
• Adult female – from 8 years until death, a reproducing female

Age Categories for Males:

• Infant – from birth to 3 1/2 years, when the gorilla is weaned from its mother’s milk
• Juvenile – from 3 1/2 to 6 years, a gorilla that is weaned but not yet reproductively mature
• Sub-adult – from 6 years to 8 years
• Blackback – from 8 years until 12 years, an adult male
• Silverback – from 12 years until death, a mature male gorilla develops silver hair on his back

There are four subspecies of gorillas found in Africa (and gorillas are only found in Africa):

1. Western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla)
2. Cross river gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli)
3. Eastern lowland gorilla or Grauer’s Gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri)
4. Mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei)

NOTE: This post was updated on November 13, 2012, with the results of the 2011 census of mountain gorillas in Bwindi.

Last week, 10 women and men traveled from Jomba, DRC, to Gahunga, Rwanda, to continue hands-on training that was interrupted last May when fighting erupted in Jomba between the M23 rebels and the Congolese army. With the fighting subsiding a few months ago, the trainees were ready to start it up again and it was decided to finish the training in Rwanda, where the trainers, from the Imbere Heza association, are based.

The team from DRC and Rwanda pose with Silus Mujyambere. He is the recipient of a rainwater harvesting tank at his home at the base of Muhabura. While the tank is being built, the hands-on training takes place.

They have two tanks to build under the watchful eyes of four members of Imbere Heza and the two training tanks are being built on the front lines, in the houses nearest to Volcanoes National Park. There is a communal rainwater harvesting tank that IGCP constructed (and mobilized a water user committee to manage) in the nearby village that people use as their primary source of water. It is still more than a kilometer away from their homes. IGCP has found that the communal tanks are more capable of retaining the collected water for the summer dry season if satellite household rainwater harvesting tanks are built surrounding it.

Mr. Mujyambere will soon have his own 4 cubic meters tank collecting the ample rains that fall throughout most of the year. Right now he collects what he can from a very short gutter into a small plastic basin at his house.

The tanks are a mix of metal, cement, and stone, which is put together with expert hands over a period of seven days.

First the foundation:

Then the frame:

Then lots of layers of cement:

Then the cap:

And access point:

And the training includes the periodic maintenance, cleaning and precautions necessary to keep rainwater as safe and clean as possible.

The nice part of this story is that the Imbere Heza cooperative were originally trained in this technique by an association in Uganda. Now they are passing it on to their Congolese counterparts. It comes full circle.

IGCP looks forward to mobilizing these experts on all sides of the border in the coming years to build hundreds of more tanks on the front lines with the parks in the Virunga Massif, so that we reduce the number of people who need to enter the parks in search of that basic need – water.

But this conflict is not between people. It is between farmers and wildlife, as forest buffalo and forest elephants leave the park to feast on potatoes or maize. This is what we call human-wildlife conflict, and it is best to be prevented or it can spur anger and downright hatred for wildlife and the conservation efforts to preserve them and their habitat. Understandable, because to these farmers, their crops are worth more to them than an elephant or a buffalo, even a mountain gorilla.

In November 2011, forest elephants, who move through the transboundary Virunga Massif, raided the crops in this area, and blame was quickly pointed across the border. Rwanda’s New Times newspaper reported, “Residents of Bugeshi Sector in Rubavu District have seen their prospective harvests slashed by almost Rwf 2 million after stray elephants from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo destroyed their crops. The elephants often cross into the district from the DRC’s Virunga national park, where they are not properly watched over.” Obviously, this kind of fingerpointing is not good for transboundary relationships.

While the trench is not much to look at, it is being applauded by farmers neighboring the park.

Fast forward to 2012 and a new trench is being dug thanks to support from the Norwegian Embassy in Uganda via the Greater Virunga Transboundary Collaboration and implemented on the ground through IGCP, with the two parks and community organizations from the two countries. The trench, almost 2 km long and completed last week will serve as a reinforcement to the stone buffalo wall that is there. The trench is specifically meant to deter forest buffalo, the usual crop-raiding culprits from accessing neighboring fields. And recently, Rwanda’s New Times again reported about this issue, but this time the story was about grassroots transboundary collaboration to find a solution to the crop raiding issue.

IGCP's Benjamin Mugabukomeye checks on the progress of the trench dug to prevent forest buffalo from leaving the park and raiding nearby potato fields..

The International Gorilla Conservation Programme has long played a role in reducing human-wildlife conflict, working in partnership with park management and local communities. Methods have included (and still include) building of the stone buffalo walls around the Virunga Massif and continued efforts to reinforce it, supporting Human-Gorilla Conflict Resolution teams (HuGo teams), advocating for and supporting the collection of monitoring data on wildlife outside of the parks, and in Bwindi’s case, the establishment of a buffer zone in Nkuringo. Lessons learned from these efforts were recorded in 20 Years of IGCP: Lessons Learned in Mountain Gorilla Conservation (click to view/download the PDF).

Photos courtesy of J. Damascene Hakuzimana/GVTC.