Travel Blog

Communities around the famous mountain gorilla's national park in Nyabigoma, Kinigi, Musanze district In the Northern Province supported by Rwanda Eco-Tours, have embraced the eco and cultural tourism concept by stopping poaching to raise their income levels through a participative approach as an incentive for conservation.

Having been poaching for centuries, given the human-wildlife conflicts around the park, communities have finally organised themselves to reap from their investment, the Iby'Iwacu Cultural Village, a concept that entails what gorilla trekkers have been missing, a place where people, culture and meet to appreciate the wonders of nature while meeting the history where the traditions still runs the modern world.

The News is publishing a series about Black Press reporter Colleen Dane’s recent trip to sub-Saharan Africa. Dane, a former News reporter now working at our sister paper in Courtenay, was the recipient of the Seeing the World Through New Eyes fellowship, funded by the Jack Webster Foundation and CIDA, and designed to introduce young reporters to international reporting. Her stories focus on development issues in Mozambique and Rwanda.

This is the final instalment.

Edwin Sabuhoro was horrified when, as an employee of Rwanda’s Parcs National des Volcans in 2005, he heard that a baby gorilla had been killed in the reserve, and was for sale for $2,000 American dollars.

He was sad and unbelieving. He was looking deep into the eyes of the person who reported the crime. Unfortunately he saw truth there and decided he had to find out for himself.

"Working Together for Our Wildlife"

Kwita Izina ceremony in Rwanda

The mountain Gorillas share with the human beings 98% of the genes and about a third of the world’s total mountain gorilla’s population live in Rwanda. The Rwanda Office of Tourism and National Park (ORTPN) and indeed the entire Rwandan community found it pertinent to extend the much cherished secular Rwandan tradition of naming every new born baby to the Gorillas as well.