RWANDA Tourism is largely the reason mountain gorillas still survive today in Rwanda. The gorilla had long been threatened by poachers and habitat destruction by farmers until the government created Volcanoes National Park and implemented strict anti-poaching patrols with local farmers as park rangers and guards. These improvements were directly funded by a substantial fee charged to visitors to the park who have been willing to pay the high fee in order to see the last of these giant apes.

Up until the early 1990s, this conservation system seemed to be working reasonably well, although non-park areas were still threatened by subsistence agriculture and fuelwood collection. However, the situation deteriorated drastically with the massive Tutsi-Hutu civil war that erupted in 1993. Although the chaos initially did not do much damage to the forest or the gorilla habitat, the mass exodus of hundreds of thousands of refugees took its toll on the environment. Many conservation workers fled their posts or were killed during the ethnic violence, while soldiers and refugees moved into national parks, hunting wildlife and razing forests for fuelwood and building materials. Akagera National Park was hit particularly hard.

All was not lost though. In the Nyungwe Forest Conservation Project, participation by locals sustained conservation projects even as the genocide occurred. According to Fimbel and Fimbel (1997), local people became stewards of the national park after the expatriate staff fled the country and protected the park from forest exploiters.

Today forest covers nearly 20 percent of Rwanda. While virtually none of this is classified as primary forest, a large reforestation effort increased overall forest cover by an average of 8 percent per year between 2000 and 2005. Currently about 7.7 percent of the country is under some form of protection. Rwanda's best known parks are Nyungwe National Park, Volcanoes National Park (montane forest harboring mountain gorillas and golden monkeys), and Akagera National Park (largest remaining lower montane forest on the continent of Africa).

Besides its world-renowned mountain gorilla population, Rwanda is home to 96 other species of mammals along with 665 birds, 31 amphibians, 206 reptiles, and 2,288 species of plants.

According to the U.S. Department of State, the Rwanda Defense Forces (RDF) currently provides security for tourists in the Volcanoes National Park against attacks by rebel groups operating from the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo. The RDF also provides military escorts for visitors viewing the mountain gorillas.

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Suggested reading - Books

• Bradt Travel Guide Rwanda
• We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda
• Field Guide to the Reptiles of East Africa: All the Reptiles of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi
• Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi Map
• The Kingdon Pocket Guide to African Mammals
• Birds of Africa South of the Sahara
• Birds of Western and Central Africa
• Field Guide to the Birds of East Africa: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi

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Last updated: 4 Feb 2006