Jun 27, 2011

Mr. Edwin Sabuhoro, the founder and owner of Rwanda Eco-Tours was honored by the country's Rwanda Development Board/Tourism and Conservation due to his contribution to conservation and sustainable development of the tourism industry to name a baby gorilla on a spectacular gorilla naming event that takes place every year, and which took place on 18th of June 2011. The baby from Amahoro family by mother Kubaha was named Ibyiza Sabuhoro, with the second name after him. This was all news and an excitement to all who have seen what Mr. Sabuhoro has done over the years for the development of Rwanda's tourism industry and for the survival of the mountain gorillas and having been successful to turn poachers into gorilla friends through incentive based projects where he invested his time, energy and money to see that local communities benefit from tourism and conservation and to have them on board as part and stakeholders of and in conservation to ensure sustainable conservation of the gorillas and their habitat Some of the successful projects so far have been the Iby'Iwacu Cultural Village that brings into the community 20,000 USD annually to the village neighboring gorillas and who were poachers, and the GOATS FOR GORILLAS projects, where every tourist who visits through Rwanda Eco-Tours gives a goat to a community family through a giving back to community celebration at the village. We hope to have every household to get a get a goat from tourism as an incentive for conservation, and that way the communities will know the importance of protecting and conserving the gorillas and their habitat. This is in addition to the 10% of annual profits contribution from Rwanda Eco-Tours back to the community. Excitingly has been small scale individual businesses developed by former poachers in crafts and agriculture that bring much needed income at the household level.