Is gorilla-friendly conservation compatible with local communities and tourism?

September 21, 2023

Gorilla-friendly policy and practice played a part in the arrival of 'Jijuka' ('enlightenment'), who was named during Rwanda's 19th Kwita Izina in 2023 by Sol Campbell.
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It can be dif­fi­cult to find a bal­ance between spe­cies con­ser­va­tion and the needs and aspir­a­tions of our own species. 

In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Sheil­lah Mun­sabe of the Wild­life Friendly Enter­prise Net­work describes a gor­illa-friendly mod­el for con­ser­va­tion, respons­ible tour­ism, and improved com­munity livelihoods.

[You too can write a “GT” Insight.]

As we become more glob­al­ised, the respons­ib­il­ity for pro­tect­ing Earth’s endangered spe­cies lies in our col­lect­ive hands. 

One of the most endangered spe­cies is the moun­tain gor­illa, which can be found in only three Afric­an coun­tries: Congo (DRC), Rwanda, and Uganda; in the Vir­unga Trans­bound­ary Land­scape where those three nations meet, and in Uganda’s Bwindi Impen­et­rable Nation­al Park.

This is why Wild­life Friendly Enter­prise Net­work (WFEN) developed the Cer­ti­fied Gor­illa Friendly™ program.

The Cer­ti­fied Gor­illa Friendly™ pro­gram com­prises the Gor­illa Friendly™ Pledge and two dis­tinct cer­ti­fic­a­tion ecolabels: 

  1. Cer­ti­fied Gor­illa Friendly™ Tour­ism, which focuses on the cer­ti­fic­a­tion of tour oper­at­ors, lodges, hotels, drivers, etc., and 
  2. Cer­ti­fied Gor­illa Friendly™ Park Edge Products, which tar­gets the cer­ti­fic­a­tion of park-edge com­munity enterprises. 

The pro­gram is admin­istered by the Wild­life Friendly Enter­prise Net­work (WFEN) and the Inter­na­tion­al Gor­illa Con­ser­va­tion Pro­gramme (IGCP), who act as the imple­ment­a­tion part­ners across the Vir­unga Trans­bound­ary Landscape.

Loc­al com­munit­ies and the tour­ism industry can play very import­ant com­ple­ment­ary roles in the con­ser­va­tion of endangered spe­cies such as moun­tain gor­il­las. Rev­en­ues and incomes from tour­ism should ideally provide suf­fi­cient resources and incent­ives to com­munit­ies to pro­act­ively pro­tect the hab­it­ats of endangered species. 

Accord­ingly, as human pop­u­la­tions grow and encroach on moun­tain gor­illa hab­it­at, the fur­ther integ­ra­tion of respons­ible tour­ism and loc­al devel­op­ment for sus­tain­able live­li­hoods becomes a priority. 

Don’t miss oth­er “Good Tour­ism” posts tagged ‘Wild­life and oth­er animals’

Gorilla-friendly tourism and product standards

The aim of the Gor­illa Friendly™ pro­gram is to ensure that those who man­age, oper­ate, and invest in the tour­ism industry pro­act­ively con­trib­ute to the con­ser­va­tion of moun­tain gor­il­las for future generations. 

Thus the Cer­ti­fied Gor­illa Friendly™ Tour­ism Stand­ards, the corner­stone of this cer­ti­fic­a­tion pro­gram, were developed through part­ner­ships and con­sulta­tions with the Inter­na­tion­al Uni­on for Con­ser­va­tion of Nature (IUCN), con­ser­va­tion experts, and tour­ism stake­hold­ers, includ­ing the Glob­al Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Council. 

This provides applic­able means to imple­ment the IUCN Best Prac­tice Guidelines for Great Ape Tour­ism amongst dif­fer­ent tour­ism stake­hold­ers such as nation­al parks, tour oper­at­ors and guides, lodges, hotels, and drivers. 

Com­munit­ies adja­cent to the gor­illa hab­it­at are con­sidered the main pro­tect­ors of moun­tain gor­il­las. How­ever, these house­holds bear the most costs in terms of crop-raid­ing and loss from moun­tain gor­il­las, and some receive a dis­pro­por­tion­ately low amount of bene­fits from tourism. 

Certified Gorilla Friendly™ Park Edge Products focuses on developing resilient and robust enterprises in the communities neighboring the mountain gorilla habitat, and improving local attitudes to mountain gorilla conservation.
The Cer­ti­fied Gor­illa Friendly™ pro­gram devel­ops “resi­li­ent and robust enter­prises in the com­munit­ies neigh­bour­ing moun­tain gor­illa habitat”.

The lack of altern­at­ive sources of income for these com­munit­ies con­trib­utes to extreme poverty and res­ults in park incur­sions to access nat­ur­al resources for house­hold needs; lead­ing to degrad­a­tion of the gor­illa habitat. 

Moreover, the grow­ing demand for tour­ism activ­it­ies, espe­cially gor­illa treks, has the poten­tial to expose the gor­il­las to human-trans­mit­ted dis­eases which is a crit­ic­al threat.

Through the part­ner­ship between WFEN and IGCP, the Cer­ti­fied Gor­illa Friendly™ Park Edge Products pro­gram was intro­duced to com­munit­ies around the moun­tain gor­illa hab­it­at in Uganda and Rwanda. 

Cer­ti­fied Gor­illa Friendly™ Park Edge Products focuses on devel­op­ing resi­li­ent and robust enter­prises in the com­munit­ies neigh­bour­ing moun­tain gor­illa hab­it­at, and improv­ing loc­al atti­tudes to moun­tain gor­illa conservation. 

Train­ing on the Cer­ti­fied Gor­illa Friendly™ Stand­ards has res­ul­ted in the applic­a­tion of best prac­tices, enhanced the capa­city of park-edge com­munit­ies to devel­op resi­li­ent and robust enter­prises, and improved loc­al atti­tudes to moun­tain gor­illa conservation. 

This has involved the applic­a­tion of a con­ser­va­tion enter­prise mod­el that con­trib­utes to poverty reduc­tion while also con­serving gor­illa habitat. 

Certified Gorilla Friendly (TM)

Today, six com­munity enter­prises around Vol­ca­noes Nation­al Park in Rwanda and six enter­prises near Bwindi Impen­et­rable Nation­al Park have been Cer­ti­fied Gor­illa Friendly™ Park Edge Products. 

Some of these cer­ti­fied enter­prises include Red Rocks Ini­ti­at­ive for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment, Ride4AWoman, Change A Life Bwindi, CIBIC, and others. 

Agnes Uwama­horo of the COOPAV Mararo Cooper­at­ive believes it is a great oppor­tun­ity to access new mar­kets, build the capa­city to upscale, and become ambas­sad­ors for gor­illa conservation.

The Gorilla Friendly Pledge

The Gor­illa Friendly Pledge is a (pre­dom­in­antly) online aware­ness cam­paign for the con­ser­va­tion of gor­il­las, includ­ing detailed guidelines for any­one vis­it­ing gor­illa hab­it­at, or simply inter­ested in learn­ing more about gorillas. 

This encour­ages tour­ists, tour oper­at­ors, and oth­er tour­ism stake­hold­ers who par­take in gor­illa trekking to ensure that gor­illa tour­ism is con­duc­ted in an eth­ic­al, respons­ible, and healthy manner. 

It includes tak­ing all neces­sary pre­cau­tions when trekking and main­tain­ing a dis­tance of no less than 10 metres, wear­ing a sur­gic­al mask, keep­ing quiet dur­ing inter­ac­tions, avoid­ing dir­ect con­tact with the gor­il­las, and more. 

The Gor­illa Friendly Pledge also out­lines a com­mit­ment to pro­tect­ing the envir­on­ment of these pre­cious spe­cies by adher­ing to these tour­ism guidelines. 

Gorilla Friendly™ Pledge

Shopping, storytelling, and other species

WFEN is fur­ther devel­op­ing its cer­ti­fic­a­tion pro­grams by bring­ing on board oth­er part­ners and cre­at­ing links to reli­able premi­um markets. 

We are cre­at­ing a plat­form to show­case cer­ti­fied enter­prises, their products and ser­vices, and where and how they can be pur­chased. The plat­form will also tell the pos­it­ive con­ser­va­tion impact stor­ies of Cer­ti­fied Gor­illa Friendly™ enterprises.

We aim to enhance con­ser­va­tion efforts for oth­er Hom­in­id­ae (great apes) too. We have already cer­ti­fied enter­prises that co-exist with west­ern hoo­lock gib­bons and west­ern low­land gor­il­las. Soon we will cer­ti­fy chim­pan­zee-friendly enterprises. 

WFEN’s goal is to build eco­nom­ies that pro­tect the hab­it­ats of endangered wild­life for a triple bot­tom line: People, Plan­et, Profit. 

What do you think? Share a short anec­dote or com­ment below. Or write a “GT” Insight of your ownThe “Good Tour­ism” Blog wel­comes diversity of opin­ion about travel & tour­ism because travel & tour­ism is everyone’s business.

Fea­tured image (top of post): Meet Jijuka, a baby gor­illa named by Sol Camp­bell dur­ing Rwanda’s 19th Kwita Izina in 2023. Jijuka means ‘enlight­en­ment’. Find more pics of the baby gor­il­las named at the 19th Kwita Izina.

About the author

Sheillah Munsabe
Sheil­lah Munsabe

Sheil­lah Mun­sabe is the Net­work & Cer­ti­fic­a­tions Coordin­at­or at Wild­life Friendly Enter­prise Net­work (WFEN).

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