Flying into Rwanda at night, one would be hard-pressed to guess
where the star-studded sky ends and where the lights in the hilly
suburbs of the capital, Kigali, begin.
There is a sense
in which the small country, despite its flaws, retains a magneticism
that is at once as disarming as it is inviting.
Indeed,
many Kenyans who visit Rwanda always remark about how clean the towns
and residential neighbourhoods are. However, two things have gone
unmentioned.
The first is that
the streets of Rwanda are not just clean. They are actually cleaned
regularly. And Rwandans do not wait for the local or national government
to pick up the trash.
They clean the streets themselves. They also plant grass and flowers by the roadside.
Secondly,
beyond all the spanking cleanliness of the streets even in rural areas,
Rwanda has another hidden gem that many visitors are hardly aware of.
This secret treasure is to be found in the heart of the Volcanoes National Park in Kinigi.
FIVE VOLCANOES
The
park is named after the five volcanoes that form the Virunga Massif,
which stretches between Rwanda’s border with Uganda on the one side and
the Democratic Republic of Congo on the other.
Of
the five, Sabyinyo volcano is the most intriguing. Under the thick
canopy of its indigenous forest are at least 20 families of mountain
gorillas, each of which has about 18 members who live under the watchful
eye of an alpha patriarch.
Here,
mist covers the valleys in a cold embrace, shielding it from the amber
glow of the early morning sun which, from a distance, looks like a gold
coin in the sky.
According to
Craig Sholley, a gorilla expert who is also the Senior Vice-President of
the African Wildlife Foundation, twelve of the gorilla families are
“habituated”.
This means that though they live in the wild, they are accustomed to receiving human visitors regularly.
The other eight families are primarily used for research.
GORILLAS
“The
habituated gorillas are tracked for 24 hours,” says Kaddu Sebunya, the
AWF President, who was in a team of eight that last week paid a visit to
the primates that share 97 per cent of their genetic make-up with
humans.
Tracking makes it
easier for tourists to know exactly where to find every family. This is
important because spending just an hour with the primates comes at a
steep price.
The government of Rwanda charges every tourist $1,500 (Sh150,000) per visit.
Only
eight tourists are allowed to visit each of the gorilla families at a
time. That means Rwanda makes about Sh14.4 million every morning from
Mountain Gorilla tourism alone.
Ten per cent of the income is ploughed back to the local community to fund infrastructure projects and social services.
“Fourteen
years ago, these roads had huge potholes,” said Jean Marie, a tour
guide, as he steered his green 4x4 towards the national park.
Though the roads are narrow, they are smooth no matter which way they lead.
DIG TRENCHES
In return for such benefits, communities are given the responsibility of ensuring that the gorillas are safe inside the park.
Every sector is allocated a part where villagers have to build a three-metre high wall along the park boundaries.
Currently, the wall stretches more than 74 kilometres and touches the Uganda and Congo borders.
Local
communities also have to dig a trench to keep elephants, buffaloes and
other animals from crossing into their farms. Villagers receive a
stipend for the work.
Local men are also hired to work as porters, earning $10 (Sh1,000) a day.
“The gorillas and the people are better off,” said Craig of the partnership between the communities and the park management.
“The animals give up an hour of their day daily. As a result, they are the most protected of the endangered species.”
However, keeping the gorillas safe comes with its challenges.
CHALLENGES
When
the Serena Group of Hotels bought 26.7 acres of land near the park to
build a resort, the park management felt the change of user from farm to
hotel would expose the primates to health and other social challenges
posed by an increased human presence in what should have been a buffer
zone between the park and the small-scale potato farms.
To
solve this challenge, AWF bought the land from the hotel group and
donated it to the national park to create more leg room for the growing
gorilla population.
“Gorillas
are highly susceptible to human diseases,” said Ms Kathleen Fiztgerald
of AWF, explaining why the decision to convert the private land into a
buffer zone for the primates was taken.
“These
are global assets,” Mr Sebunya said during a recent handover ceremony
where the chief executive officer of Rwanda Development Board, Ms Claire
Akamanzi, received the deed transferring the land to the national park.
Former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa was among the guests at the handover ceremony.
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