Are too many tourists killing Africa's wildlife?

I have barely been in Zarafa, Botswana’s newest exclusive safari camp, five minutes when I have my first encounter with a wild animal. I am halfway along the pathway that leads to my tented room when a bull elephant emerges out of the bush and stands, stock still, just 20 yards up the path, directly in front of me. I hold my ground, as the guides instruct you to do, but I can hear my heart beating, partly out of excitement and partly out of fear. For a moment there is complete stillness as two tons of bull elephant stares down on 190 pounds of puny homo sapiens.

Then I hear footsteps and, looking over my shoulder, see the lean figure of Dereck Joubert striding towards me. As he passes me he raises his hands and claps twice. The big bull shakes his head, looks Joubert up and down, and turns off the path towards the fever berry trees. “Isn’t that fantastic?” Joubert says with a broad grin. “These elephants are so relaxed. They’re already getting used to this camp and we’ve only been operating here for six months.” That isn’t quite what is going through my mind.

Joubert is one person you would expect to know the difference between a relaxed elephant and one that in an instant would drop its head, flatten its ears and charge you with deadly effect. He has, after all, with his wife Beverly, spent the past quarter of a century living out here cheek-by-jowl with wild animals. In that time, spent mostly in tents, they have come to know the wilderness and its inhabitants in the way we city dwellers have come to know the neighbourhood shops, art galleries, bars and restaurants… the contents of our urban lives.

Once Joubert has dispatched the bull elephant he returns to the main camp and I walk on to my room. Then I sit for half an hour on my veranda looking out onto the lagoon that lies in front of the camp. That brief exchange between man and animal, the smell of the bushveld, the serene quiet of the wilderness and the changing light as the sun begins to set behind the ilala palms beyond the lagoon – all of this infuses me with the spiritual nourishment that seems absent from so much of our scurrying daily lives in the so-called civilised world’s great urban agglomerations.

Out here I can breathe again, I can feel connected to the planet whose sides I barely touch in my city life. Out here my olfactory senses come alive and my skin tingles as the evening breezes whip up.

Joubert’s call from the main tent interrupts my reverie. We are to drive off across the lagoon to look for a lion pride that has recently moved into the area. The Jouberts are now the most famous wildlife film-makers on the continent: five-time Emmy winners who last year released their first major film. In 25 years of bush living they have all but become integral parts of the ecosystem, as much components of the environment as the leopard, lion and elephant. Now this camp, Zarafa, and Great Plains, the wildlife tourism company they have launched with Colin Bell, a conservationist, and two other partners, promise a revolutionary step into the future for African wildlife conservation.

The company’s mission is “conserving and expanding natural habitats”, according to Bell. The strategy: high-tariff, low-volume tourism. Instead of paying fees based on the number of tourists who come in, camp owners guarantee payment every month to the local people, regardless of occupancy. In exchange, the tribal landowners agree to create and maintain a viable and sustainable conservancy that ensures that wildlife prospers. Great Plains claims to make these communities direct financial beneficiaries (and even shareholders), earning income streams from tourism, encouraging the tribes people to become custodians of the African wilderness.

If a model based on working with the community sounds blindingly obvious, one should be aware that, in most of Africa’s diminishing wilderness areas, safari tourism has had such minimal financial impact that local tribes people see the animals as competitors for the land.
Zarafa is the penultimate stop on a long trek that began in Kenya and has taken me through the Maasai Mara, KwaZulu Natal in South Africa, the fabled Kruger National Park and Botswana. Ahead lie a couple of days at South Africa’s Londolozi, the private luxury camp on the border of Kruger.

Everyone I have met on my trek says the same thing: the wilderness is at a tipping point. Hell, the whole of Africa is at a tipping point, faced as it is with unsustainably massive population growth, attendant poverty, corrupt government and the growth of misguided mass-tourism safari outfits. It has been like this for decades, but the decline of animal populations seems to have accelerated with the turn of the century, and the veld, that last refuge for the planet’s most varied mammal and bird population, is facing a crucial decade.

The problems have become especially apparent in Kenya’s Maasai Mara reserve, one of the world’s most famous safari destinations, which has for decades been cursed with low-revenue, high-volume tourism. There has been little benefit for the fast-growing local communities and a shocking impact on the animals.

In the early Eighties there were maybe half a dozen lodges in the Mara with fewer than 300 beds; today there are more than 25 permanent lodges and well over 3,000 beds. East African conservationists say that soaring visitor numbers have severely damaged roads and grasslands.

Equally threatening to wildlife have been the growth and changing lifestyles of the rural population. The once nomadic Maasai have left their mud-and-wattle homesteads and gravitated to more permanent settlements along the borders of the Mara reserve. Thus the wild animals that have moved in and out of the reserve are now competing for habitat with Maasai livestock that no longer move over the vast plains, and large-scale crop cultivation that comes with a more settled lifestyle.

According to a recent report by the International Livestock Research Institute, the reserve’s ungulate population declined sharply from 1989 to 2003 as a result of poaching and human encroachment. Giraffe numbers are down 95 per cent, warthogs 80 per cent, hartebeest 76 per cent and impala 67 per cent. The carnivores that depend on these wild animals are, according to the institute’s Joesph Ogutu, the next casualties. “The number of lions are going down, the cheetah numbers are declining, “and the wild dogs in the Mara system have become extinct,” he says.

The Mara is famously the setting for the annual wildebeest migration, also known as the greatest wildlife show on earth. In previous decades more than 1.2 million wildebeest and an attendant caravan of predators – mainly large lion and hyena groups – would move from Tanzania’s Serengeti up onto the Mara plains. A recent count suggested that migratory numbers have now dropped to 300,000. According to Brian Heath, chairman of the Mara Conservancy Trust, “the migrations into the Mara will not be sustained if the numbers keep falling as they have in recent years.”

This rush towards extinction in one of the world’s most famous wildlife habitats supports the views of Bell and the Jouberts that nothing short of a conservation revolution will save Africa’s wild places.

Great Plains’s move into the Maasai Mara is a great test of the Bell and Joubert model. In Botswana, they are operating in an environment of relative stability with government support that is free of corruption; by comparison Kenya is the Wild West. Conservationists argue that cynical tour operators and lodge owners, and corrupt county councils, have over the years siphoned off most of the profits from foreign tourism, leaving almost nothing to trickle down to local tribespeople. Add to this a volatility surrounding foreign tourist arrivals, which fell spectacularly after the 2008 post-election riots and are now subject to the global downturn in foreign travel following the credit crunch, and it’s easy to see how the ordinary Maasai need some convincing that their financial security is best served by ecotourists photographing animals.

Thanks to guaranteed community payments by Mara Plains, Great Plains’ six-room, 12-bed camp on the Olare Orok Conservancy (OOC) on the Maasai Mara’s northern border, the Maasai have moved their homesteads, cattle and goats out of the 30,000-acre area. Lions and other predators are starting to come back. Wild Africa is reclaiming itself.

The OOC deal was brokered by Jake Grieves-Cook and Ron Beaton, two respected Kenya hands who have long been involved in wildlife tourism, and among the four partners are Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin group and the Great Plains group, which have collectively put up $250,000 (£160,000) for the right to build and operate tented camps. What is unique for Kenya about the OOC is that it has strict limits on visitor numbers: there is one tourist tent for every 700 acres of conservancy land. “This land is critical to the survival of most resident and migratory wildlife species such as elephant and wildebeest,” says Dickson Ole Kaelo, a well-known Maasai ecologist, who is urging the government to support the expansion of conservation and tourism on Maasai community lands along the lines of the OOC. “These conservancies have demonstrated pragmatic approaches to sustaining the Mara’s wildlife, giving a better tourist experience and providing returns to the land owners for investing in conservation.”

Botswana is Africa’s conservation poster boy, in large part because of its stable government. In contrast, many wildlife rivals – Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe – have been riven with corruption that starts in the higher reaches of public office and finds its way to the gates of the national parks. One conservationist in east Africa told of an official arriving at the conservancy he manages with a black briefcase which, when opened, revealed $200,000 in crisp notes.
“This was what he was offering me to allow some Middle Eastern clients to come big game hunting in this proscribed park,” he told me. “I told him to get off the conservancy immediately.”

Without strong, stable government, Africa’s wildlife is particularly vulnerable, as is painfully evident in Robert Mugabe’s all but collapsed Zimbabwe. With almost no policing of the country’s proscribed wildlife areas, famous national parks such as Hwange have become open house for illegal hunting parties. Conservationists say that we will only know the true cost of almost a decade of anarchy when the Mugabe era is over and a full audit is taken of once-abundant parks.

Botswana also stands out from its neighbours for its wise policies when it comes to tourism. In the Eighties the government took the advice of a group of conservationists and decided to develop the high-revenue, low-volume tourist model, with communities being direct beneficiaries. The policy has paid off handsomely, as Botswana has not been as susceptible to the ebbs and flows of western tourists as, say, Kenya, which has traditionally depended on more mass-market tourism. Kenya’s volatile mixture of political instability and dependence on western tourists hit home in 2008, when post-election riots stopped international tourism in its tracks during its peak season and left most of the Mara’s lodges empty for the first half of the year.

The Botswana government also wrings a bigger commitment out of the companies that run the lodges and safaris in its wildlife parks. Companies such as Great Plains, Wilderness Safaris and Abercrombie & Kent are obliged to pay sizeable lease fees – sometimes up to $250,000 per concession per annum – to the local communities, plus 4.5 per cent of turnover during the year. According to safari insiders, that 4.5 per cent works out at about 25 per cent of the net profits of a well-run safari operation. On top of that, leases are contracted for 15 years, encouraging camp operators to invest in their surroundings. By contrast, in east Africa most operators pay only a bed-night lease fee, which means that the community benefits only if someone sleeps in the bed .
In a bad year, such as 2008, when tourists stop coming, revenue dries up, and local communities – left questioning the benefits of wildlife tourism – are thus inclined to revert to other land uses, such as domestic livestock and subsistence agriculture.

The Toyota Landcruiser is bouncing across the rutted track when Joubert sees movement in the jackalberry trees to the left of the vehicle. It is a female leopard heading west into the dusk light.

Reluctantly, Joubert tells our driver, Dukes, to keep going or we will miss seeing the lion pride hunting buffalo. This part of Botswana was until recently a hunting area, and the Jouberts’ conservation philosophy is not surprisingly driven by a fierce anti-hunting position. Dereck points out that in the time it took him and his wife to make their documentary film Eye of the Leopard, about a leopardess called Lagadema, “10,000 leopards like her were legally hunted and killed, all with permits approved by CITES, [the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species].”

Although sport hunting was banned in Kenya in 1978, it remains legal and a source of considerable revenue in Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Namibia, South Africa and some parts of Botswana. Thanks to the Jouberts, Bell and a small group of like-minded conservationists, Botswana is leading the drive to ban hunting completely in prime areas. There are now seven major wilderness areas in the country, totalling two million acres, that have been converted from hunting to photographic safaris. Botswana’s president, Ian Khama, a close friend of the Jouberts, has personally endorsed the initiative.

Bell and the Jouberts are taking their anti-hunting message into the heartland of big game safaris: Tanzania. Trophy fees there have remained the same since the mid-Eighties, making Tanzania the international hunter’s bargain basement. Though there are no statistics available on the number of animals shot annually, it is estimated that Tanzania generates $13 million from what is coyly termed “wildlife utilisation”, which includes hunting and live animal capture. In South Africa, which does keep statistics, more than 54,000 animals of all species were hunted in 2006, earning the country more than $250 million in trophy fees. Big business, indeed.

“We are buying the hunting licences in the Selous Game Reserve and tearing them up,” says Joubert with glee. “Our total bill will be close to $90,000 this year. We are saying that we are going to own these animals for the year.”

Having wrenched Dereck away from the lone leopard, we head out into the evening looking for the lions. It isn’t long before we find them, a pride of nine animals doing little more than lolling around in the turpentine grass, occasionally standing alert as a nearby herd of buffalo shows signs of movement.

As dusk envelops us and the extraordinary night sky fills with stars, we find ourselves contemplating the impact homo sapiens is having on this magnificent wilderness. Dereck stares intently at the pride and says “around the time the occupants of this vehicle were born just over half a century back, there were more than 450,000 lions roaming across Africa.” His voice echoes in the stillness: “Today, there are fewer than 20,000 left on the whole continent.”

Soon, grim statistics and analysis are punctuating the night air. We all agree we are overpopulating at such a pace and to such dramatic effect that we are minutes from midnight ecologically, with rural Africa experiencing one of the highest population growth rates on earth. For most of human history, the fields grew plants, the plants made cellulose, we ate the plants, we ate the animals and we were living off current sunlight.

From the earliest evidence of human civilisation, around 150,000 years ago, until the industrial age in the 19th century, that was how we lived and our population did not pass a billion people. Our second billion took just 130 years to appear, the third only 30 years, taking us to 1960; since 1963, our population has doubled to more than six billion. We are living on environmental credit.

The pressure in Africa is most serious. The population has grown from 100  million at the beginning of the 20th century to 700 million at the end. By midway through this century it will have ballooned to two billion and, although the massive concentrations are in the cities, the wilderness areas are increasingly under pressure from burgeoning rural populations and their domestic animals. It’s most notable in the Maasai Mara, increasingly one of the most competed-for tracts of wilderness on the continent – both from the point of view of local residents and foreign tourists.

My last stop on this extended safari is Londolozi, a private reserve with four luxurious camps. I feel I need to catch up with Dave Varty, the man who, by creating in the early Seventies one of the first high-revenue, low-impact safari camps on the edge of South Africa’s giant Kruger National Park, set the tone for luxury light safaris. Where once big names such as Teddy Roosevelt, Ernest Hemingway and John Huston used to go on safari with hunting rifles and retinues of bearers, their present equivalents pitch up with a few overnight bags on a private jet and hope that the spa and masseurs are in order and that the wines have been kept at the correct temperature.

Like the most progressive East Africans, Varty thinks the solution lies in returning this entire area of South Africa to wildlife, moving the rural population that is pressing up against Kruger’s western boundary away from the area, and creating an enormous wildlife corridor that reinstates the elephant migratory paths that existed here until the arrival of white colonials.

There are five dirt-poor villages with some 40,000 people living in this hardscrabble landscape, and to say that their existence is subsistence almost understates the case. The men are away in the cities earning money; there is nothing here for the women and children. In the same way that the Maasai have been given incentives to move out of the OOC, so Varty believes that wildlife tourism can help the translocation of these communities into more viable rural towns.

Over the next two days, we drive around Londolozi tracking leopards, looking for lions and watching a large herd of elephant drinking and grazing along the banks of the Sand River. This is part of the 155,000-acre Sabi Sands reserve, and Londolozi and its similarly luxurious neighbours, Mala Mala, Singita and Richard Branson’s Ulusaba, promise their wealthy American and European clientele accessible wildlife from the comfort of a vehicle with perfectly mixed sundowners at some beautiful spot at the end of the drive.

Over sundowners on my last night, Varty goes intergalactic, waving his arms around and raving about corridors and optimum land usage and why “we Africans have to tell people like Sir Richard Branson and Bono what it is exactly we need here. We don’t want a school to be built here – we want you to pay for 300 miles of fence and you can tell the world that Virgin built the Sir Richard Branson Fence.” Then he’s off again, this time addressing South Africa’s president, Jacob Zuma.

“I’m not going to build a school here, Mr Zuma,” he declares to an audience of elephants washing themselves and drinking down at the water’s edge. “No, let’s build one at Thulamahashe or at Bushbuck Ridge [rural towns some way off]. Let’s put up proper housing, proper towns. There is nothing for people in these semi-arid, low-rainfall areas. This is for wild animals. Don’t put any more bricks and mortar on this thing.” Then he falls silent. There is nothing nuanced about what Varty is saying.

And there you have it, the rolling thunder of so many voices, desperate to be heard, messianic in their message. Cut corruption. Stop hunting. Create corridors. Move people. Pay people. Make tourism pay.

The sun has set, the elephants are barely visible in the soft moonlight. The stars stud the inky sky. It has all been said. Is anybody listening?

By Graham Boynton
Telegraph

Gorilla Census in Uganda for March

THE Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) is to carry out a gorilla census in Mgahinga National Park on March 1. The census shall be done with Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo that share the Virunga ranges where the gorillas are found.

Speaking to journalists on Tuesday, the conservation area manager for Bwindi and Mgahinga, Charles Tumwesigye, said the census shall be done with Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo that share the Virunga ranges where the gorillas are found.

According to the UWA executive director, Moses Mapesa, gorilla tourism contributes the highest foreign exchange to the economy. The number of tourists visiting Bwindi Impenetrable National Park which nests some of the gorillas living in Uganda is believed to be growing steadily.

Bikingi Gorilla Group on Track

By Geoffrey Baluku

The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) has in the past few months been habituating another group of Mountain Gorillas (Bikingi) for tourism. This arose from an earlier public outcry where industry stake holders questioned the rationale of UWA awarding monopoly rights of Nkuringo gorillas to a private investor under the disguise of doing it for the local community.

Bikingi group which is in the southern sector of Bwindi Forest National Park will be the 8th group to be habituated. Other groups include Nshongi that was officially opened for Tourism in September 2009, Bitukura Group in Ruhija, Nkuringo, Mubare, Habinyanja, Rushegura and Kyaguriro that is currently being used for research. The eight habituated gorilla groups constitute about 25% of the total gorilla population in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

Gorilla tracking contributes over 60 % of tourism revenue to the coffers of the Ugandan government.

According to researchers, "overall, the gorilla population has been increasing at an approximate annual growth rate of 1%, which is indicative of a healthy population".

The director of conservation, Sam Mwandha, said, “It is too early to say when they will be able to accept human presence for the Bikingi group. We will probably be able to establish this in the next few months.”

The total Mountain Gorilla population in the whole world is estimated to be about 760 with about 340 in the jungles of Bwindi Forest as the rest straddle through Mgahinga, Rwanda and DR Congo.

Mobile Internet generation targeted by Google's smart phone

By Miguel Helft

Google’s unveiling on Tuesday of a rival to the iPhone is part of its plan to try to do what few other technology companies have done — retain its leadership as computing shifts from one generation to the next.

The rapid emergence of the smartphone as a versatile computing device may be as much a challenge as it is an opportunity for Google, which built its multibillion-dollar empire largely on the sale of small text ads linked to search queries typed on PCs.

As people increasingly rely on powerful mobile phones instead of PCs to access the Web, their surfing habits are bound to change. What’s more, online advertising could lose its role as the Web’s primary economic engine, putting Google’s leadership role into question. “The new paradigm is mobile computing and mobility,” said David B. Yoffie, a professor at the Harvard Business School. “That has the potential to change the economics of Internet business and to redistribute profits yet again.”In recent decades, the power of industry giants like IBM and Microsoft, waned as computing shifted from big mainframes to PCs, and from PCs to the Internet.

Many analysts say it is now Google that is faced with a less certain future in the face of another shift. Still, they say Google saw this coming years ago and has been preparing for it. Google executives now say they are confident that the company will thrive as the mobile Internet grows.

“We are incredibly excited about the opportunities that we see in mobile,” Vic Gundotra, a vice president of engineering at Google who oversees mobile applications, said last week. “We have invested a considerable amount, and we can now really provide a compelling mobile experience.”Top Google executives, including Eric E. Schmidt, the chief executive, have long said the mobile Internet was Google’s biggest opportunity for new growth.

They orchestrated a string of acquisitions of companies with mobile-related technology, including Android, maker of a cell phone operating system; Grand Central, a service for making calls that can bypass telephone lines; and AdMob, an advertising network for mobile applications. The AdMob deal is awaiting approval from regulators. Google also invested far more aggressively than its competitors in mapping technologies and services tied to a user’s location, which are likely to become the vital underpinnings of new advertising systems on GPS-equipped mobile phones.

The unveiling of the Nexus One, a thin, touch-screen handset built to Google’s specifications and made by the Taiwanese company HTC, is a challenge to a newly minted industry power: Apple, whose iPhone dominates the high end of the smartphone market.

While the iPhone sends millions of people to Google’s search and other services, some of the company’s applications, like Google Voice, have not been allowed to run on the phone.Analysts say that with the Nexus One, which Google plans to sell to consumers directly, the company is trying to free itself from Apple’s growing influence. It also wants to broaden the appeal of Android’s technology.

The phone is expected to be sold unlocked, allowing consumers to buy service plans separately.Gundotra declined to discuss specifics of the Nexus One. But he said all of Google’s mobile moves were driven by one objective: Pushing the industry to open up in an attempt to replicate on mobile phones the environment that has allowed the PC-driven Web to grow at explosive rates.

Some of Google’s moves, like its bid for spectrum, confounded many in the industry. But analysts say Google’s actions proved shrewd and that the company has, to a large extent, helped open up the mobile Web and ensured that its services, and ads, will be accessible to all.“You could take a view that this is a very geeky company,” said Nicholas Carr, author of The Big Switch, a book about the shift to Internet computing. “That underestimates the strategy that underlies all these moves.”

New York Times

UGANDA: Bwindi, Where Gorillas Come First

By Mike Ssegawa

Travelling is like falling in love. You can get swept off your feet by a new place you've visited and in the process, build an attachment to it never to be forgotten. Having been to Bwindi in Kisoro last month for the first time, I can conclude I'm in love. I am not a well travelled person.

Travel is one of those subjects I am not comfortable talking about because apart from Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia, I have not visited any other place outside dear Uganda. For me, Arusha is the most beautiful town in East Africa and Maasai Mara the most sacred animal sanctuary. But Bwindi is the place I fell in love with nature.

I grew up listening to stories about apes, like the clever monkey, the "cannibal" chimpanzee, and the "rapist" baboon. All these apes are interesting animals to watch and available in Uganda. I grew up fighting monkeys that raided our crops; at 10, I saw a chimp at the Uganda Wild Life Centre in Entebbe when my school took us for a tour, and baboons spoilt my appetite on several journeys made along Jinja-Busia road on my way to Kenya. Yet, it was the gorilla I have paid the most to see, and for that, I am not about to let go.

Not that I parted with the $500 for the gorilla permit foreigners buy to have an opportunity to look at one of the world's endangered species. And as a Ugandan, I didn't pay the Shs150,000 locals and East Africans are charged to spend less than one hour with man's cousins. Opportunity struck when Nshongi Gorilla Sanctuary in Bwindi was opened to the public for the first time last month. After a 10-hour drive to Kisoro's chilly hills, memories of a 19-year-old who entered Nairobi for the first time in June at the start of the millennium came flooding back. Like then, I had only a T-shirt on and no jacket in my bag, ignorant of the fact that the place I was going to was very cold compared to central Uganda, a place I was raised and could walk shirtless even when it is raining.

On that fateful day in Nairobi, the temperatures had gone down to 16 degrees, and while people in Europe could be laughing out loud, for me it was too cold for comfort and I had to buy a jacket on the street. Now in Nshongi, Rubuguri Parish in Kisoro District, the same cold bit my body. Without a jacket or warm clothes, I was left with no option but to put on all the shirts I had in my bag. When I looked outside the window, the village boys were playing football shirtless and small children barely wore anything on them. That's how relative life can be.

That evening, we spent the night at Gorilla Safari Lodge, where the Tourism Minister, Kahinda Otafiire, was also a resident. This man is full of jokes, but not even laughter sent the chill away. I was relieved when a fireplace to warm our bodies was hurriedly set up at the minister's request. The next day, we woke up at 7:30a.m and prepared to intrude the gorillas' privacy (the guide said they don't enjoy people's company). Reaching the forest's entry point, there was a sea of foreign and local press. When the guide received the notification on his walkie-talkie that we were free to start on our journey, every one of us (about 30 journalists) dashed into the first part of the forest and stopped at about 200 metres for the briefing.

Kisoro, where the forest is located, is a hilly place. The people there are farmers and make use of the hills and valleys, right.

In Bwindi, the gorillas seem to be more important than human beings; at least their interests come before those of human beings. "If anyone wants to ease themselves, use the toilets here because we cannot allow you to leave your excretion in the deeper forest since it could contaminate the gorillas," the senior warden, Pontius Ezuma, said. The second rule was, "If you have any contagious disease, please stay here, because we don't want you to pass it on to the gorillas."

Our guide, Benjamin Bayinda, who seemed to enjoy every inch of the forest, promised to give us more briefings about gorilla trekking along the way, but first we were warned not to give the gorillas any foods, and each one of us was encouraged to go up with a stick. "You may leave the stick behind at your own risk," another warden joked. Some did go with their sticks. Others didn't give heed to the advice. Two rangers with guns went ahead of us, and the third came behind the group. That's how much protection we needed. Not your ordinary forest!

This forest is not that different from the rain forests you may have been to. As a little boy, I spent four years in Lwanunda, a village four miles out of Masaka town. There, I experienced the pleasures of the forest, but most of them had traces of human activities.

We walked miles to collect firewood, but it was not about the firewood; rather the fun - despite parental warnings that those forests had misambwa (ghosts) - it excited us. We ate fruits, played gogolo (sliding down the hill while sitting on a banana stem), swam in the rivers, swung on the climbing plants of the forest and chased monkeys. This is what I recalled as we trekked mile after mile through Bwindi. The more we went into the forest, the deeper and larger than life it seemed - Bwindi Impenetrable is about 330sq km. Its paths are still fresh, and as I said earlier, loggers or charcoal burners must want to visit this forest. Nothing is touched, save for the Batwa people, who still prefer to hunt animals, among which are gorillas, for food.

The sound of River Nshongi, which runs through the forest down to Lake Edward through Lake Albert before it joins the River Nile on its way to Egypt, made the quiet forest alive. As we walked through, the guide told us to remain silent since the forest had several animals like elephants that detest human intrusion and would defend their territory at all costs. That warning fell on deaf ears. One hour of walking and the gorillas were nowhere in sight. I had not seen any elephants either. And yet, the paths were slippery.

I was wearing the shoes I bought for my friend's wedding, and here I was, stepping in the mud like the pair cost me a few shillings! We crossed river after river, jumped stream after stream, stone after stone and fallen trees along the path. Then we started seeing elephant dung, a sign the elephants were not far from us. At some point, the guide stopped us. "This is where we met a group of gorillas," he said, showing us the side of the river which looked like a playing field for the animals. He said, "We named the group Nshongi, because we found it on Nshongi River."
The weather in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest is so cold; in the evenings, the whole forest is engulfed in fog.

It was time for new instructions: When we meet the gorillas, make sure you keep a distance of seven metres. This is to protect both the gorilla and you. Leave the sticks behind. Gorillas will think you're out to attack them and they will go out to defend themselves. Remain in a tight group. Don't drink or smoke. Keep your voices low. Do not run or turn your back on the silverback. Don't keep eye contact with the gorillas, especially the silverback.

"Do you need to know why it is so important to keep the rules? Well, gorillas however much they resemble human beings, are still animals. This particular group of gorillas has just gone through a habituation process. It has taken the wardens two years to familiarise them with human contact," Bayinda said. He added that the gorillas would do their best to fight, ignore and distance themselves from people as much as they could, till after habituation, apart from the silverback charging whenever it senses a new person, all this is to protect its clan.

Bayinda told us Bwindi was declared by UNESCO a world heritage site in 1994 and the forest contained half of the world's about 720 gorillas. In Nshongi, the habituated group has about 34 gorillas, with three silverbacks and eight black backs. Every gorilla unit is led by a silverback. A male gorilla becomes a silver back at about 14 years and a black back at about 12. After a long lecture in "gorilla-tactics", we moved on, this time expecting the animals to be in the vicinity. But no, we had more miles ahead. We had been told that we were using a track with a lot of bird species. I wasn't interested in birds, though I saw very few of them. The guide also told us that forest kobs were in plenty. I saw none. Tracking gorillas is not a thing for the faint-hearted.

Three hours into the forest, I started to ask myself why I had come. I was afraid I would fail to reach the place gorillas had relocated to that morning. My heart was skipping, but I moved on. I was looking forward to something special, so I persevered. Sometimes the only way up was to dig one's fingers into the soil to find a firm root, holding on to trees or the person above to pull you. Somewhere between the hills, we could hear the female colleagues we had left behind groaning. Despite their falling several times, they made it.

The forest continued far above our heads, and the river, we could see, was nowhere near its source, at least for me to declare, "This source has been discovered by Mike Ssegawa". After three and half hours of nonstop trekking, the guide announced that the gorillas were close by. We were divided into three smaller groups of 10. "The gorillas hate to see many people at once," the guide reminded us. The first group went up. The rest of us sat on the stones, waiting for their 15 minutes of gorilla-love. Seven minutes later, Warden Ezume said there was a strong smell of gorillas. I didn't smell anything however. And he was surprised. Two minutes later, he got a signal that the gorillas were on their way down in our direction. We had to change positions, to give them the right of way.

It's nice being a gorilla in Bwindi. Then, I heard the first gorilla sound. One girl shouted, "There it is", but I didn't see a thing, though the trees were shaking about 100 metres away. Minutes later, I saw black animals disappearing into the thick bush. It was my first glimpse of the gorilla, but I told myself if this was what I had come to see, then it was a raw deal. As I thought that, I think the gods of Bwindi got angry and without any warning, sent a heavy downpour. I did not have a jacket on me. And my camera was not well protected, not forgetting my non-safari shoes which until now I had managed to safeguard from severe damage.

When the guides said my group was next, I was taking refuge in one of the wardens' raincoat. But I had to go and see the gorillas and went into the rain. And without minding my already wet clothes, Italian leather shoes, or even camera, I went close to the animals. Not seven metres away, but three. It was a fulfilling experiencing.

Now that I had seen the gorillas, I had nothing to lose. Even if it meant walking back to the hotel naked. The young gorillas played around the trees as the silverback ate grass, unmindful of being watched as the cameras clicked. It was like Paris Hilton on the red carpet. We didn't watch the gorillas for only 15 minutes like the others, ours was like forever. No one minded how wet we got. The gorillas too enjoyed our company. I like looking at pregnant women, but the site of a pregnant gorilla I saw eating a local herb, ebbombo, was fabulous too.

After everyone had quenched their thirst, we left, stepping into the river at will, falling like no one cared. All we wanted was to return to the place we would find some warmth. Funny though that no one remembered the rules. We turned our backs to the gorillas and they didn't mind us. We walked down at a speedy pace, this time in groups. The sun briefly found its way through the forest, and just after colleague said, "Wow, this forest is truly gifted by nature", another downpour ensured, ensuring that we exited the forests not bothered anymore about how wet we were.

I had fallen five times. But who was I not to fall? After all, one would imagine military generals most fit, but General Otafiire got his share and he left the forest limping and I didn't! We looked around for our driver, rushed to the hotel, and got into the shower room, where I thought about my achievement of the day. I looked through the window at the forest before me, which was now covered in fog. I thought about the gorillas inside the forest feeling the cold.

I imagined what I could do if I was asked to do the trekking once again, this time, to offer them a fire for warmth. Then I remembered that a cold forest was their part of their life. When I could not see the trees anymore but the fog, it felt like I had left a friend behind in the mist. Trekking had made me connect with the forest, and of course, the gorillas. The impression is not going away any time soon. Bwindi, I am thinking about you.

2009, THE YEAR OF THE GORILLA

By Baluku Geoffrey

Kampala, Uganda

United Nations Environment Programme designated 2009 as the year of the Gorilla.

From the start of this year a lot of activities have already taken place and others are yet to be rolled out with an intention of creating awareness about Gorillas. They are endemic species and share 98.4% of their genetic material with humans. Gorillas, the largest of the Apes are divided into 4 sub species belonging to the western and eastern species.

The western species include the western lowland Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and the Cross river Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehl) while the eastern Gorilla species include the Mountain Gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) and the Eastern lowland Gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri).

Renowned primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall who happens to be the patron of the initiative said in a statement, “it is time for us to pool all our resources towards saving these magnificent creatures”.

Uganda is so lucky to have over 50% of the Mountain gorilla population in Bwindi Impenetrable and Mgahinga Gorilla National Parks.

As an important partner in gorilla conservation, Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) will be officially launching the year of the gorilla on 17th April 2009. This will be done in partnership with the Association of Uganda Tour Operators (AUTO), local communities and other national and international organizations through which the public profile of gorillas will be raised, the wider public educated on the threats the gorillas face and also discuss the conservation status of these unique animals.

Year of the Gorilla

Gorilla tracking contributes over 70% of the revenues from tourism in Uganda. Despite the above contribution, they are a globally endangered species.

Ian Redmond, an expert at the UN Environment Program said: “The year of the Gorilla is not just about gorillas but their habitat”.

Their habitats are continually being impacted by growing human population and have lately become victims of armed conflicts especially in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.

It is in line with this that the year of the gorilla is intended to encourage practical, easily manageable strategic approaches to gorilla conservation.

The public is there fore encouraged to take part in these activities which will culminate in a very big event later in the year.

Uganda targets 1million tourists by 2012

By Paul Tentena

UGANDA Tourism Board (UTB) has set a target of a million tourists by 2012, according to a top official.

William Byaruhanga, the board chairman, explained last week that this would be achieved by expanding the scope of products provided, and entice tourists to stay longer with attractive packages.

“We shall maximally tap our potential in the sector in terms of investment and arrivals,” Byaruhanga stated.

Byaruhanga said Uganda received 642,000 tourists last year but noted the need to improve the country’s presence and marketing initiatives across the globe.

“We intend to expand our activities within Europe and also target new markets like the US and Asia this year. The Ugandan stand design shall be consistently improved to be competitive at different exhibitions as we benchmark best practices internationally,” he stressed.

On the country’s staggering image abroad, Byaruhanga observed: “Branding and positioning takes a while regardless of our past history and it requires consistency and sufficient funding.
“International marketing requires huge sums of money to change our past image in the source markets and we shall get there with good marketing strategies.

“Every country has its history that is what distinguishes us as people. Germany gets millions of visitors annually regardless of Hitler’s activities in the past.”

Commenting on the issue of the “Gifted by Nature” brand and the “Pearl of Africa” tagline preferred by the private sector, Byaruhanga said “A brand is a perception or mindset. Therefore, the two brands can be pushed and used to compliment each other instead of cannibalising each other.

“Both brands have not been fully tested to come out with clear conclusions about usage mileage.

“However ‘Gifted by Nature’ stretches beyond tourism to other sectors like trade. A branding strategy has been finalised and is set to be rolled out, finances being a factor.

“Consultations have been ongoing to solve the differences of the two brands.”

Byaruhanga said Uganda will host four regional domestic tourism exhibitions in Uganda given the credit crunch in Europe, which is the major market.
“We shall also design family, corporate and individual packages that are affordable and attractive to our people.

“It should be noted that tourism is the fastest growing sector world wide at 8% and indeed in Uganda as well. Tourism has a perfect trickle down effect and can be key in fighting poverty hence the need to prioritise it.”

Gorilla Permit Monopoly Affecting Uganda's Tourism Industry

By Baluku Geoffrey

Kampala, Uganda

A public out cry continues over the illegalities and monopolization of gorilla permits. The endangered Mountain Gorillas; are believed to share 98.4% of their genes with humans. Out of an estimated 720 mountain gorillas left in the world, 340 are found in the jungles of Bwindi Forest which is said to have slightly over 32 groups / families of gorillas.

Of the over 32 groups of gorillas, only four (4) have so far been habituated for tourism and these include Mubare, Bitukura, Habiyanja, Rushegura which has since changed base to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nkuringo which is the current subject of debate. Mubare, Habiyanja are at the Buhoma side and are easily accessed through Kanungu while Bitukura is in Ruhija and the Nkuringo family of gorillas though still in Bwindi Forest is easily accessed through Kisoro district. One new other group is expected to be open for tourism very soon.

It is important to note that over 70% of the revenues from tourism come from Gorilla trekking. This continuous flow of tourists to go Gorilla trekking has been through a concerted effort from various players in the industry that include tour operators, hoteliers to mention but a few.

However, Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) who are expected to be the custodians of all National parks in Uganda encouraged some individuals to come up with a company with whom they could do private business. The company later came to be known as NCDF. According to the articles and memorandum of association, the company comprised of around 23 people who were all meant to have accented to the articles. On perusing through NCDF’s articles and memorandum of association, several irregularities are noted.

UWA and NCDF entered into a dubious agreement that enabled them to also acquire land with funding from USAID through Prime West. The over US$800,000 that was used to pay for land (buffer zone) in an area that is not that much needs to also be investigated. It should be noted that the lease hold for the land co owned between NCDF and UWA is on plot 5, Nteko Nkuringo Block 121 which copy is now being kept at the Executive Director (UWA’s) office in Kampala.

This top secret deal was started on 30^th August 2004 when UWA signed a memorandum of understanding with NCDF that included exclusive rights to gorilla permit sale. NCDF later entered another agreement with The Uganda Safari Company (TUSC). However, the owner of TUSC - Jonathan Wright was a member of the UWA board till 2005. Questions related to a conflict of interest have been raised and the public feels several Acts were breeched. A similar scenario happened in 2001, when Mr. Zahid Alarm who was a member of the UWA board at the time tried to support a tender for investors (his friends) to manage treks on Mt. Rwenzori. It is on record that Mr. Jonathan Wright clearly said that was a conflict of interest (Ref Monitor Newspaper 17^th July 2001).

Also around 1995 UWA tried to do the same by allocating 50% of the total number of gorilla permits available per day to Abercrombie & Kent (A & K). A & K also had similar proposals of putting up a lodge in the name of “conservation” to which the stakeholders rejected. The A & K gorilla permit monopoly was cancelled though the lodge (Gorilla Forest Camp) was still built and is being well run even with no condition such as tagging of gorilla permits.

This arrangement between UWA, NCDF & TUSC continues to raise more questions and is likely to escalate into a full blown conflict.

It is a known fact that gorilla permits are not only scarce but they are also competitive. Thus giving the exclusive right of the permit sale to one lodge and more so one tour operator is a vice that should be challenged.

Let it be clear that we concerned stakeholders are NOT against the lodge but against the issue of monopolization of the gorilla permits and more so pegging them to one lodge.

Monopolies create distortions and should not be welcomed in liberalized economies like Uganda. There is need to engage in normal competitive business that is in line with governments’ policy. Several people and companies including foreign and local have invested heavily in the areas of Bwindi despite not getting such preferential treatment. Is the UWA, NCDF and TUSC alliance that special?

The new lodge is also said to have received a grant of US$250,000 from Prime West as contribution for building. There is no further justification for other “gifts” in the name of gorilla permits.

There have been petitions from the parishes of Nteko & Rubuguri that make up Nkuringo. More petitions have been raised by the people of Muko that nears Rubuguri; Kisoro district leadership, hoteliers in Kisoro, Ugandan Tour Operators Association, church leaders and several other stake holders have all petitioned government questioning the rationale of such a deal.

From a survey carried out in Kisoro (where the Nkuringo group is easily accessed) it was realized that more than 85% of the tourists who stay in Kisoro hotels and lodges were linked to a gorilla permit. Thus the allocation of 6 permits (75% of the available permits to the TUSC and NCDF has led to a decline of around 80% of their bookings which also applies to tour operators. Industry players feel this is very unfair as it gives the opportunity to one lodge and more so one tour operator to receive and handle guests.

The arrangement between UWA, NCDF and TUSC entitles them to sell guaranteed gorilla safari departures on any day, week and month for the entire period the agreement is in place. They also do not have gorilla permit risk since they do not deposit any money on permits and there fore do not suffer cancellation charges as is stipulated in UWA’s booking guidelines for 2008.

The private operator is now also at liberty to decide whom they can sell the permits to and will most likely lead to favoritism and discrimination. What makes this whole arrangement more questionable is that there are clauses which state that everything should be kept in “secret” considering that even the “community” in question did not have a lawyer to represent their interests.

Through consultation with a few other lawyers, it has also been realized that the agreement between Flora & Fauna International and UWA in regard to purchase of land in Nteko parish specifically provides that the law applicable shall be the contract law of United Kingdom yet the subject matter of the contract is in Uganda. What is even more disturbing is that one of the “beneficiaries” was air lifted for agreement signing between NCDF & TUSC in Nairobi.

The law of Uganda is very clear on how to deal with communities. The structures of the local council (LC System) have to be used. However, UWA and IGCP opted not use the normal system but rather encouraged a few individuals to come up with a company instead of a trustee. This company (NCDF) was later realized to be limited by guarantee and comprised of around 23 people with some forgeries being noticed in the MOA. Considering that the community is made up of over 33,000 people with many of them against NCDF because of its loop holes, is reason enough to cancel this dubious deal.

According to UWA, their aim was to help the “community” get returns from the losses caused by the gorillas. It is argued that the gorillas had a home range of 25km² parts of which was outside the park boundary on community land. The issue of why the gorillas used to move to community land (taking in mind that this very land was paid for thus being the buffer zone) is a subject for further debate. The most evident cause is that the canopy in the forest is high while the gorillas want to eat from lush secondary grass. The solution for this is to carry out controlled cutting of some of the trees in the forest so as to create feeding ground for the gorillas. UWA does this in other parks where they carry out controlled burning in the parks so as to enable growth of new vegetation that is suitable for the wild animals.

They have also branded NCDF as a “community” project. On the contrary it is not as has been highlighted in several petitions.

Mapesa, the Executive Director of UWA always has always argued that the community was to get 6 permits though the money from the permit sale would go back to UWA. This is what one of the tribes in Uganda refer to as “Byoya Byanswa” or “hot air”. In actual sense the benefits would come from the accommodation side where an eco lodge was mooted hence becoming a contradiction in terminus. It now becomes evident that some people were pushing for their own selfish interests as there is no business plan to justify this whole deal.

According to the current arrangement NCDF will be getting US$30 per bed night from the US$450 TUSC charges per bed night taking in mind that NCDF are said to be the “rightful” owners of the lodge. Who is fooling who? If NCDF are truly the right owners of the lodge then they should be the ones to pay TUSC management fees of say 15% of the profit earned.

Normally the local council can help protect its people from such crime or robbery. Those who claim the project was “good” for the community chose to leave them out in the planning and implementation stages. All they do is package the deal as a “conservation and community” issue despite the fact that it is being used to enrich a single investor – crazy way to do business.

The local government Act 1997 clause 50 sub section d and f stipulates that the parish or village executive committee shall over see the implementation of policies and decisions made by its council and shall serve as the communication channel between the Government, District or higher local council and people in the area. It also goes on to note that the local councils will generally monitor projects and other activities undertaken by Government (UWA in this case), local Governments, and Non Governmental Organizations in their area. What happened – UWA dealt with a private company that seems to have been created illegally?

Part IV of the basic Public Procurement and disposal principles clause 45 is clear when it says that all procurement and disposal shall be conducted in a manner which promotes transparency, accountability and fairness. The secrecy involved and lack of business focus for industry players clearly shows that the PPDA ACT 2003 was breached.

Section 12 of the Uganda Wildlife Act gives local councils the right to appoint a committee to advise UWA on wildlife management. Part III of the wildlife Act Cap 200 under subsection 13 clause 3 and 4 also states that the Executive Director shall publish in a daily newspaper and in any other appropriate forms of media a notice of his or her intention to prepare a management plan and invite suggestions from all interested parties of what matters should be in the plan. It should be noted that the secrecy involved in this whole deal even made UWA not to consult industry players on the proposed monopolization of gorilla permits. The Uganda Wildlife Act Cap 200 goes on to say that the Executive Director shall request the district council within whose area the wildlife protected area falls in whole or in part to forward to him or her within a reasonable time, which time shall not be less than 21 days any proposals for inclusion in the plan. Considering the several petitions raised by Kisoro district council, just goes on to show that there secrecy in regard to gorilla permit privatization was not agreed upon.

It is important to note that the Association of Uganda Tour Operators at its sitting on 8^th April 2008 (in the presence of Mel Gormley - Past chairman AUTO and the Ministry of Tourism Trade and Industry staff) a committee was chosen from members present to investigate this whole saga . The members present agreed in principle to co opt other stakeholders with whom a investigations were conducted and findings presented through a report that was later adopted by the membership as their position. The committee was not supposed to delve so much in the several documents but to raise areas of concern and come up with a stand point for AUTO which was done.

During the investigation, an opportunity to travel to Kisoro was made possible. UWA which was represented at one of the Kisoro district council meetings by Mrs. Eunice Mahoro Duli acknowledged that they had blundered and were looking for a way forward. From the Kisoro district council deliberations, it was realized that over 90 % of the councilors were of the view that the arrangement between TUSC and NCDF not only be CANCELLED but were also of the opinion that the IGG investigate UWA’s dealings. The district speaker with advice from the Chief Administrative Officer proposed that they first handle the issue through the line Ministry prior to contacting the IGG’s office. It was then that the Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism were petitioned not only by the Kisoro District Council but also by the Association of Uganda Tour Operators and other stakeholders including actual Nkuringo Community members and not those masquerading to be their representatives.

For more information on the publics concerns visit

http://www.petitiontime.com/ViewPetition.aspx?key=nkurigorilla

Mountain Gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest reach 340

By Baluku Geoffrey
Kampala, Uganda

The number of the endangered Mountain Gorillas in the famed Bwindi Forest - Uganda has shot up from 300 in 1997 to 340 according to results that were carried out last year.

Mr. Moses Mapesa, the Executive Director Uganda Wild life Authority (UWA) says that the 12% growth in numbers is a clear indication that wildlife conservation programs being implemented in Bwindi Forest National park continue to produce positive results. He further notes that the total population of mountain gorillas in the world stands at about 720 with half that number in Uganda alone.

According to the census carried out between April and June 2006, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park now has a total of 30 gorilla groups up from 28 in 1997 with the numbers in each group varying between 3 and 28. The census which was supported by several conservation groups also found 11 solitary males which are not yet attached to a particular family.

The census found that the percentage proportion of groups with several males (multimale) fell from 45% in the 1997 and 2002 censuses to 23% in the 2006 census. According to a UWA press statement; this represents a normal fluctuation in the dynamics of gorilla groups.

Of the 30 groups, five are habituated of which four are utilised for tourism while one is used for research. The five habituated gorilla groups have a total of 76 gorillas constituting 23% of the total gorilla population in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Because of the increase in the gorilla population, UWA has started a habituation process for two more groups in Rushega and Ruhija in abid to boost Tourism revenue and satisfy the increasing public demand for gorilla tracking.

According to the researchers- "overall, the gorilla population has been increasing at an approximate annual growth rate of 1%, which is indicative of a healthy and well protected population".

Mapesa adds that the population contains a sufficient number of adult breeding females, as well as a sufficient number of adult breeding females, as well as a large proportion of immature individuals who will become breeding individuals in the near future.

Uganda's Star Attraction - Gorilla gorilla beringei

By Baluku Geoffrey

Kampala, Uganda

Gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans and humans all belong to the order primates. Humans share 98.4% of their genetic material with gorillas and 98.8% with chimpanzees. Gorillas; the largest of the great Apes are divided into three subspecies that include the western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and the eastern lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla graueri). The eastern and western lowland gorillas were identified for science in 1847 and 1877 respectively.

The third sub specie – the Mountain Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla beringei) was identified for science purposes in the year 1903 and has gone on to become Uganda’s star attraction. Mountain gorillas are physically distinct from lowland gorillas. They are larger, have much hair, a short trunk, a broad chest / shoulders and also have a longer / slightly different nose shape.

They are born small, covered with black hair and usually weigh about 2.3 kilograms. Gorillas develop about as twice as human babies with the mature female mother also under going a gestation period of 9 months. They are unique species; as a gorilla with an infant may not have another baby up to four years – good family planning.

Male and female young gorillas between the ages of three and six are classed as juvenile. During this period, both the male and female gorillas have a black skin and thick black hair and usually weigh about 2.3 kilograms. They increase in size and weight at similar rates for the first six years. On reaching six years; most Mountain gorillas weigh about 68 kilograms and are usually about 4 feet tall.

The female Mountain gorilla stop growing taller as they mature at around six years, this is as opposed to the male Mountain gorillas that continue growing both in size and weight past the age of six till they reach the ages of ten to eleven.

Between the ages of six and ten years, male gorillas have a black hair colour and are thus referred to as the Blackbucks. On reaching maturity which is usually between 10 and 12 years, the male Mountain Gorillas develop silvery grey hairs on their backs thereby being referred to as Silverbacks.

The Silverback usually leave their parental group at the age of 11 and then moves alone or in the company of other males for a few years before managing to attract females from other groups to him hence forming his own family. Silver back is a dominant male in a group of about 12 or more gorillas that usually include females, juveniles and other infants.

On a good day, you will find them chewing leaves, laughing and farting not only continuously but with a lot of contentment. They are diurnal (nomadic), sleeping each night in a fresh nest built from leaves and branches. Mountain gorillas are primarily vegetarian with their menu comprising bamboo, nettles and gallium being some of their favorite.

They occasionally also eat safari ants which are scooped in huge handfuls to stuff into the mouth until the safari ant bites over power them. Gorillas spend most of their time traveling and foraging in search of food since plants and trees change with seasons.

Gorillas communicate through vocalizations. Twenty five distinct vocalizations have so far been recognized with each one having its own particular meaning. As an element of their socialization, they communicate through howls, grunts, barks and hoots. Screams and roars signal alarm or warning and are often produced by silverbacks. They also communicate by beating on their chests or on the ground. This is done to show stature, prevent a fight or even scare off opponents. However, even the infants beat their chests as a kind of displacement activity during play perhaps just to copy their elders.

Mountain gorilla life is peaceful and quite. It is from this that they have come to be called Africa’s Gentle Giants.

These gentle giants are found in the areas of Parc des Volcans – Rwanda and Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) while in Uganda, they are confined to Mgahinga Gorilla National Park and Bwindi “impenetrable” Forest National park.

Bwindi “impenetrable” Forest National park is situated in south western Uganda on the edge of western rift valley (Albertine rift) and is shared by Kanungu, Kabale and Kisoro districts. It is 331 square kilometers in size; on an altitude range of 1,160 metres (Ishasha gorge) to 2607 metres (Rwamanyonyi peak).

According to the census carried out between April and June 2006, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park now has a total of 30 gorilla groups. Of the 30 groups, five are habituated of which four are utilized for tourism while one is used for research. The total number of gorillas in Bwindi is 340 which is almost over half of the total estimated 720 Mountain gorillas in the world. The park was gazzetted in 1992 as a National park and is now a UNESCO world heritage site.

It is now on record that Gorilla trekking provides over 50% of tourism revenue for Uganda thus being a strong reason for their protection.

Currently, even with the conservation efforts being implemented so as to protect Africa’s Gentle Giants – the Mountain Gorillas, several media reports continue indicating that these species are on the decline. A case in point is a BBC report (September 2007) whhere it was reported that “Gorillas head race to extinction”. The reasoning was that in light of the massive movement of people in the region and growing “insecurity” in the virunga area could be among the causes of the death of 9 mountain gorillas that have been killed from the start of this year.

Uncertainty continues over who kills them and a mystery remains in the hearts of conservationists as to why it’s done. There is an urgent need for conservationists and the governments of Uganda, Rwanda and DRC to explore the missing gaps so as to save these endangered animals.