Category: News

Conservation organizations and the government of Uganda and Rwanda have adopted new guidelines to protect the mountain gorillas from catching the Covid-19 Virus.

Under the guidance of the International Gorilla Conservation Program and Gorilla Friendly, updated gorilla trekking protocols have been issued to ensure minimal contact between the great apes and tourists who at times are likely to be disease carriers.

Gorilla Trekking Before Covid-19

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed a number of things in regard to gorilla trekking.  Before the pandemic, a good number of tourists were visiting Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, the only home to the endangered mountain gorillas in the Pearl of Africa.

With the breakout of the COVID-19 in March 2020, Uganda decided to close all its national parks and primate tourism was suspended due to the fear of the spread of the novel virus from humans to the great apes. It was also during that time that Bwindi impenetrable forest national park registered its highest baby boom in just 7 months.

When the gorilla parks were reopened, strict Standard Operating Procedures had to be adopted.

“Since gorilla tourism is one of the primary sources of gorilla conservation funds, it is important to do tourism in a careful and sustainable manner that must ensure the safety of the gorillas,” Bwindi officials said in a statement.

One didn’t need a face mask to trek with the gorillas, and it was only in Virunga national park where face masks were considered necessary before the pandemic

The old gorilla trekking protocols also discouraged anyone with flu or cough symptoms getting near the animals, as gorillas share 98% human DNA. This implies that the disease that affects humans also affects the gorillas.

They also did not allow smoking, eating or drink in the presence of the mountain gorillas and one had to maintain a 7 meters distance between them and the gorillas.

“But sometimes the gorillas defied this rule. In that case, the gorilla trekkers were always advised to sit quietly until the gorilla moves on. This was very common with the little gorillas which are very playful,” the statement from Bwindi said.

New Gorilla Trekking Protocols

In addition to the existing gorilla trekking protocols, the International Gorilla Conservation Program (IGCP) has come up with a list of protocols to ensure that diseases like Covid-19 and many more infectious diseases.

They are:

1. A Gorilla friendly pledge will be signed by the visitors to ensure that they adhere to the gorilla trekking protocol. This is done as a pledge to gorilla sustainability
2. Visitors are required to undergo a test for fever “temperature scanning” or sign of illness such as cough and flu prior to the gorilla trek. Once you are found ineligible for the trek, the parks usually have refund policies that have to be looked into before booking your gorilla trek.
3. Every visitor is expected to wear a face mask during their gorilla trek in any gorilla national park

Are Gorillas Safe?

A common question asked by travelers who would like to resume their gorilla trekking safaris in Uganda, Rwanda, and Congo. According to Makonzi Michael Kiwanuka working with Go Gorilla Trekking, one of the leading gorilla safari outfitters in the country, the gorillas are very safe!

“Tourists who have resumed their travels have embraced the new protocol as well as the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that Uganda and Rwanda adopted while reopening the primate parks,” said Kiwanuka.

He adds that there are even plans to make rapid tests available to visitors looking to go gorilla trekking in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. In the Volcanoes National Park of Rwanda, testing is available at Musanze the closest town to the park. All this is done to ensure that mountain gorillas are protected.

Gorilla Tourism key to wildlife conservation 

For a significant number of travelers to East Africa, gorilla Safaris are the major icon for tourists. Most travelers who travel to big-name destinations like Tanzania and Kenya combine their safari experiences with gorilla trekking in Uganda and Rwanda. Even the unstable DR Congo receives tourists who travel to Virunga National Park and KahuziBiega National Park to see the gorillas.

The revenues received from gorilla tourism are used in the conservation of the gorillas. Part of the conservation work is the gorilla-based research conducted in partnership with several international Universities and students around the world.

The local people who were resistant to the creation of gorilla national parks have embraced gorilla tourism to the extent that there is reduced poaching.

More benefits received from tourism include direct revenue from the sale of souvenirs, service providers such as local tour operators, guides, and porters, rising community-based development projects such as the Bwindi Hospital, etc. Several locals now own safari lodges where travelers stay.

Success Story of Gorilla Conservation

There are few conservation projects that have been named to be successful and gorilla tourism is among the few.  The mountain gorillas were once projected to be extinct. The good news is that the mountain gorilla population is rising and these great apes are off the IUCN list of Critically Endangered Species.

There were as few as 240 mountain gorillas in the 1980s. By late 2018, there were 1069 mountain gorillas left in the whole world. These great apes roam through the Virunga Region shared by Uganda, Rwanda, and DR Congo as well as Bwindi Impenetrable Forest of the great pearl of Africa.

The Volcanoes National Park of Rwanda has also registered a great success story. In the past three years, the park has been expanded twice to provide a safe haven to mountain gorillas.

The park boundaries were first expanded in 2018 and this year the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) has decided to extend the park by an additional 40sq miles. This is really good news for both conservationists and tourists.

The post COVID-19: New protocol out to protect Uganda’s gorillas appeared first on The Independent Uganda:.

Rwanda being a small country it has taken high level in promoting sustainable tourism to save the mountain gorillas in the Volcanoes National Park and the chimpanzee in Kyamudongo area, part of Nyungwe Forest National Park. There are several companies promoting Eco Tours Rwanda and the promoting this type of tourism it has led to the increase of the mountain gorillas in the Volcanoes National Park.

The sustainable gorilla trekking tours are the most experiences which leads to the high flow number of international visitors in Rwanda, the organizations concerned at conserving the mountain gorillas have put measures to regulate the high pressure that the mountain gorillas would experience from the tourists, as the number for visitors to trek each gorilla family is limited to 08 people per day and this has helped so much the gorillas and the carrying capacity of the forest maintained.

The Eco-friendly safari lodges which blend with the nature have been established at the Volcanoes National Park and some measures like the benefit sharing with the local communities near and far from the park is in place to promote the local communities projects and hence saving the mountain gorillas. To have this experience some of the reliable companies can arrange for you this kind of experience in Rwanda and you can either start your Ec tour from the Rwanda volcanoes or Nyungwe forest and this experience can be 5 or 6 days safari in Rwanda, and this safari can start from Kigali or from any other town of Rwanda or Uganda. For you to experience this sustainable tour in Rwanda stay with lodges that blend with the nature in Volcanoes and Nyungwe forests, after this experience you can too visit some Rwanda cultural sites like the IbyI’wacu cultural village and other museums. The Kigali city is well planned on the sustainable plan and several lodges have been put up to boost Eco tour conferences.

The Rwanda development board has introduced more activities like Musanze caves, Karisimbi and Bisoke mount hike, Dian Fossey and the Golden monkey tracking, birding trips Rwanda and all these can be experienced on your Eco tourism in Rwanda.

The buzz at the foot of the Volcanoes National Park in northern Rwanda on Wednesday was yet another sign of how eco-adventure tourism like mountain gorilla trekking has high prospects for Rwanda.

In the morning breeze, more than 100 tourists interacted with Rwandan tourism officials, including CEO of Rwanda Development Board (RDB) Clare Akamanzi, before embarking on their journey to the park.

Akamanzi reiterated the fact with tourists that security organs contained the situation and restored order following a security incident, where a group of gunmen last week killed 14 in an armed attack in Kinigi sector, which is close to the park.

Among the tourists, at least 59 tourists from different countries were there to see mountain gorillas while 68 others were visiting the park for other activities such as hiking the Virunga Mountains and visiting other primates such as golden monkey.

“I feel excited to visit gorillas because they are unique species with complex behaviors,” an American tourist who gave her name only as Lisa told reporters.
“Even before seeing them I think the walk alone to reach to the gorillas offers an amazing lifetime experience,” she added.

There are over 1,000 mountain gorillas living in the world, more than half of which live in the Virunga Mountains, where Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park lies, according to World Wildlife Fund.
Mountain gorillas contribute about 90 percent of tourism revenues from Rwanda national parks, RDB said in a statement released in February. The central African country sold 15,132 mountain gorilla permits worth 19.2 million U.S. dollars to tourists in 2018, statistics from RDB showed.

The attack didn’t scare off tourists who were still confident about the security of Rwanda. “We feel 100 percent safe. We feel very welcome. I love Rwanda,” Gordon Higman, a tourist from Australia, told reporters.

Several hoteliers in the area sounded an upbeat tone about their businesses. Leonard Harerimana, assistant manager at a hotel located close to the park, said the attack did not affect tourism activities and didn’t affect business.

The same day tourists went to the national park to track gorillas normally, and those who do hiking in the Virunga Mountains did it normally, he said.

Michael Hughes, manager of a lodge near the national park, said the “truth is hoteliers didn’t feel any effect though they had to delay new arrivals and departures a bit.”
“I honestly believe right now everyone is very safe. There should be no reason why tourism could be affected,” he said.

Mountain gorillas have to thank the efforts of Gorilla Doctors and other organizations in restoring hope for these world’s endangered species. Unless you’re a bit of a statistics enthusiast, census figures are probably not of great interest to you. But here are three simple numbers that are worth your attention.

The Aiken Standard, a daily newspaper published in Aiken, South Carolina, reports that Uganda’s mountain gorilla population has grown to 400, up by almost 100 from 2006. This brings the total number of mountain gorillas in Africa—they also live in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo—to 880.

Nonprofit organizations like Gorilla Doctors are dedicated to saving the lives of mountain gorillas, began their work in Uganda’s Bwindi Park in 1996. “The Gorilla Doctors’ Staff Research Veterinarian, Dr. Jean Bosco Niyezi (now a professor at Makerere University Veterinary School), was approached and hired as the first field veterinarian for the organization,” Jessica Burbridge, Communications Officer for the same Organisation, told Take Part. “Gorilla Doctors Uganda field team, now led by Dr. Fred Nizeyimana, regularly monitors all of the habituated gorillas in this park for health problems and performs medical interventions when an individual is looks to have a life-threatening injury or illness of any kind.”

The Aiken Standard noted that, among these individuals “Even a common cold can kill a mountain gorilla, as the species is particularly vulnerable to respiratory diseases usually associated with humans.” Mountain gorillas also have a slow rate of reproduction, which has contributed to their endangered status. The African Wildlife Foundation notes that in a 40-to-50-year lifetime, a female might have only two to six living offspring and males don’t reach sexual maturity until between 10 and 12 years. In addition, the females are only able to conceive for about three days each month and often give birth to a single infant.

Gorilla Doctors has stated that “extreme conservation” methods have contributed to the growth mountain gorilla’s population. Burbridge explained that it “entails having people there for example employing Ranger guides, on the ground, working to protect the gorillas. Gorilla Doctors’ veterinary intervention for wild great ape populations, as well as other organizations that have instituted daily ranger monitoring of the gorillas, have contributed to the increase in population.”

But the organization faces a number of problems and difficulties as well in carrying out their work. “One of the largest challenges of working in the Democratic Republic of Congo (D.R.C) is of course, security,” said Burbridge. “With the recent fighting between the M23 rebel group and the Congolese military, the area we work in has become very insecure. Access to the wild Grauer’s (or eastern lowland) gorilla populations in Kahuzi Biega National Park, the wild mountain gorilla population in Virunga National Park and to the orphans at the Senkwekwe Centre has also become a challenge. Relatively speaking, Uganda and Rwanda are more stable, and we are able to carry out routine health monitoring visits for all of the habituated gorillas.”

Gorilla Doctors’ efforts are complemented by collaboration with a number of conservation groups, (stakeholders) and government authorities. “The gorilla’s conservation success story is very much a product of the dedication and hard work of many different organizations and stakeholders working in the region, and especially the various parks’ efforts,” said Burbridge. “Gorilla Doctors, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International (DFGFI), Rwanda Development Board (RDB), the Congolese Wildlife Authority (ICCN), Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP) are among a few working in the region.”

She adds that, “Just to give you a snapshot of this, in Rwanda alone, Gorilla Doctors provides the life-saving medical care for the gorillas, the Rwanda Development Board / Volcanoes National Park and the Dian Fossey Fund employs rangers that are in the field all year long, monitoring the habituated groups, and all organizations working in the country play an important role in increasing awareness about the gorilla’s plight and educating the local and international public.”

It’s nice to see that the intense collaboration efforts among all these different groups working together really is making a difference. Mountain gorillas are the backbone to gorilla tourism in Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Their conservation is vital and you can help conserve these amazing gentle giants through different ways; taking a gorilla safari to Bwindi, PNV or Virunga, donate to organisations working towards their conservation or volunteer with a local community project. Your contribution definitely provides hope that the results of the next census will provide even better news for mountain gorillas.