Dispatches
Gorilla Tracking in the Virungas: Even cooler than it sounds
April 16, 2008
It’s a short journey from Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge to Parc National des Volcans where we’re met by Francois, a buoyant, convivial 25-year gorilla tracking veteran and former porter to Dian Fossey who established the formal organization of Rwanda’s Parc National des Volcans gorilla trackers.
I won’t soft sell it… gorilla tracking ain’t cheap. 500 bucks for a one day, one hour gorilla permit, but it’s an exclusive show - 8 people maximum per day are allowed to visit each gorilla troop. The proceeds from the permits go toward improving tourism services, park infrastructure, community conservation projects and gorilla protection including funding a team of 80 trackers and anti-poachers who work a 24-7 watch on their charges.
We departed on a clear, cool morning, gaiters on and packs filled, prepared for what we’d been warned could be the worst…dumping rain, stinging nettles, mud bog walks, 6-8 hour round trips over dicey terrain. Our venture proved short and forgiving. A steady hike under clear skies, we worked out way straight up the sides of Sabyinyo toward the Hirwa group of gorillas.
The trail wove its way through fields and as we moved into the rainforest, Francois educated us on all the flora the gorillas fed upon - bamboo, sour apple, fern… we crossed the buffalo wall, demarcation of the national park boundary built to keep the hyper destructive African buffalo within the park and out of farmers’ crops.
The canopy thickened. Francois’ radio squawked and he spoke in a rapid fire mix of Kinyarwandan and French. We searched his expression for clues as to our fate.
“They are this way, follow me”
A few moments later, we met up with the trackers and received our debriefing.
“No food no drink leave your packs here no flash you need to pee? Do that now. Numba 2? You need to have done that before. You follow me, you listen to my instructions.”
We nod as willing converts to the one-hour window of gorilla interaction. The anticipation was palpable.
A short walk, maybe 200 yards later, we encountered a mother and baby.
With about 3% DNA deviation, gorillas are the better side of the family - like us, but more calm, less fettered by social norms, more furry and rocking it with equivalent of opposable thumbs on their feet (the things I could achieve…).
As for our critically endangered cousins, it was an honor to visit them that close for even just a brief window. Zoological parks can provide an education and thrills but standing across an short, unfenced divide from a peaceful creature that has an uncanny similarity of social structure, behaviors, in whose offspring’s eyes you spot the spark of discovery as the switch tack to climb, discover, play… nothing like it, people, nothing like it.
Words can’t fully describe pure excitement of experiencing these incredible natural treasures up-close. We were moved, every moment spent in their presence precious. Pictures, while great to cue memory and offer a notion of the activity, barely give it justice.
Consider an idea so good that we shouldn’t have to suggest it twice: grab your favorite traveling companion(s), make tracks to Rwanda and check it out for yourself.
Rwanda, Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge: Community ownership benefits all
April 16, 2008
Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge: So many great things to tell you about, just not sure which to start with… the superlatively scenic luxury lodge…or the thrilling strides that were made with the lodge’s unique community-ownership model that financially benefits from every guests’ visit…or visiting the critically endangered mountain gorillas. So, having properly baited you, I do believe that I will lay it all out in that order.
The first effort and reward metaphor in place at Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge:
To the first-time western visitor, the rugged walk up to the main lodge surprises, yet as the lungs and legs grow taxed, the path turns, the view delighting the eyes with puffs of chimney smoke emanating from a handful of Mediterranean-styled tile roof cottages, generously spaced and offering jeweled contrast against the impossibly green backdrop of Sabyinyo, one of five volcanoes visible from the lodge.
Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge provides extraordinary service without falling to the cloying or invasive. This is not an amenity - overloaded North American chain hotel luxury (yawn), it is African luxury adventure travel, and you’ll never appreciate it more than here. The ideal landing spot for gorilla trackers both for the location and attuned hospitality, you can stomp up the walk in your mud covered boots, met with a smile and an inquiry as to how your expedition fared as you’re slipped into a clean pair of sport slides. In the blink of an eye your clotted boots have been spirited away for cleaning, your hands warmed with a mug of tea. Gravitation toward the baronial fireplaces in the lodge and cottages is a natural response to the calming cool of the neighboring rainforest gorilla habitat, a welcome relief from the stifling heat found at lower elevations.
Effort and reward, part two: Some accomplishments happen in a vacuum, the act of a singular organization or individual. But their successes are never as sweet as those that are shared.
Built and run by safari lodge operators Governors’ Camp, Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge is actually owned by a community trust, SACOLA, marking a shift, a revolutionary approach to lodge management and profit distribution in Africa.
How? When the concept of the lodge was being dreamed up, Governor’s Camp partnered with the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) and the International Gorilla Conservation Program (IGCP). The partners concluded that the most fruitful structure to the property would endow ownership of the lodge to a community trust set up specifically to receive rental and other income to drive socio-economic development conservation initiatives with the dual goals of improving the livelihoods of residents in the Kinigi area while contributing in a meaningful way to conservation and preservation of the mountain gorilla and its fragile habitat.
Why? Once they realized how they would benefit, the villagers of Kinigi put their shoulders into supporting the building of the lodge, hauling up rock and timber… local women distinguished themselves as grade A masons, creating the pathways from the lodge to the cottages as well as any stoneworker had seen.
In our trips to and from the park, villagers waved and smiled… we were the tourists coming to see the gorillas, the ones who had chosen to stay in the lodge that their community owned. The profits from our accommodation built schools, improved roads and water resources in Kinigi - animosity towards the gorillas, resentment toward the banning of commercial enterprises (aside from tourism) in the protected habitat wanes as tourist dollars fill community coffers steadily and local lives are markedly improved.
Maurice, the interim manager of the lodge, had asked us at dinner if we’d like entertainment the following evening, a group of local singers and dancers… sure, why not?
The next afternoon, I sat out on the lodge’s patio where weather watching borders on contact sport… sunshine, storms, lightning and rainbows worked the valley over the course of half an hour. From the valley below, cattle lowed… and then voices in song began gently wafting up. Hm, must be some sort of gathering in the valley. The sound increased, singers growing greater in number, the choruses more powerful, persistent.
A torrent swept over the property and as the rain subsided, the voices were notably stronger, the lyrics more pronounced. Pen pulls up from journal and eyes dart to where the sound originates. Are those voices coming this way? Anticipation, excitement. No way… those voices?
Fifteen dancers, drummers and singers poured onto the Sabyinyo Lodge patio. Leaping, pounding, chanting, dancing… Between Kinyarwandan lyrics, one energetic singer ran up to us shouting “WELCOME! WELCOME! WELCOME!”
There may have been a script, but this was full gospel “nice to have you here” if I have ever heard it. And at our departure, the earnest, sparkling-eyed staff bid our return.
“You will come again, yes?”
We will be profoundly challenged to stay away.
Rwandan indigenous communities: The path from forest to farm
April 16, 2008
Thus far, the GO projects that we’d visited were designed to support communities on the edge of gorilla habitat. Then we were introduced to another community, the Batwa, indigenous forest people who had shared their ancestral homes with the gorillas.
When Rwandan national parks were created, including Parc National des Volcans, forest dwellers were evicted without compensation and prevented from providing for themselves through their hunter-gatherer traditions.
The survive/thrive conservation strategy becomes a challenging twist when a critical habitat has been not just been a source of food and fuel - it’s been native land to a people for time immemorial.
Once banished from the territories and environment they once called home, the Batwa suffered enormously, a socially marginalized people who had no jobs, land, homes or political representation. Unable to read or write, the Batwa were held back from integrating into society as their skills and behaviors were specific to a forest dwelling life that they were no longer able to access, forcing them to beg and scavenge to survive.
A Batwa moved by the plight of his dispossessed people, Benon Mugaruwa helped form African Indigenous and Minority Peoples Organization (AIMPO) and partnered with the Gorilla Organization, helping the Batwa acquire 30 acres of farmland and create 7 community based organizations. The farmland and organizational support offer the Batwa agricultural training, assistance and hope, providing access to education and medical care. Through their own efforts and with the support of AIMPO and GO, the Batwa have developed new skills while creating a new cultural identity and pride - attributes that had eluded the Batwa since the loss of their homeland and traditions.
That pride was most apparent when we arrived for a visit to a field very near Volcanoes National Park. A group of 20 men and women stood in a misty field and welcomed us to their land - carefully tilled dark earth with a burgeoning crop of potatoes. Benon did some interpretation for us, but the light in the eyes of the people as we toured their land, their radiant smiles, pointing to the plants and the rich soil that were fueling their rise from dispossession and abject poverty, required no translation.
We took a short trip into a nearby village and Benon gave us a tour of initial construction of crop storage facilities. Singing began to emanate from a simple brick building on the property. The voices rose, more jubilant with the passing of each minute.
“Benon? Who is that singing?”
“That? Those are the farmers. They are singing for you”.
“Oh my, well we should probably go in and listen to them, don’t you think? Benon, what are they singing about?”
“They are singing that they are happy you have come to visit them, that they appreciate that you have come here to hear their story”.
We enter the space and the volume, already pronounced outside, doubles. A celebratory call and response is in full swing, singers and dancers jumping into the center of the group to participate in energetic duets or solos. The room is electric as elders, children and parents clap and call out the tune; babies wrapped to their mother’s backs bounce along to the rhythm of the song.
This performance is ostensibly offered to thank us, but surely the celebration underway is for the Batwa themselves, leaving the brink of existence behind to become landholders, community members, contributors to their own success story with some well considered support - truly a reason to dance.
Ruhengeri, Rwanda: Back to school for water catchment education: Cisterns 101
April 16, 2008
Traveling the roads of the communities around Ruhengeri, Rwanda, one cannot miss the ubiquitous yellow water jug - strapped to bicycles, toted atop heads, waddled down roadways by children scarcely bigger than the containers themselves.
One of the cruel ironies of life in this portion of the world is “water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink”.
Despite 300+ days of rain here in the shadow of the Virungas, the porous, volcanic soil rapidly draws surface water away leaving the soggy inhabitants of the region dodging raindrops but without ready access to drinking water.
Two facts:
-Water collection accounts for 85-90% of all illegal activities within the gorilla habitat.
-Household water collection is a chore that falls to children. Since survival trumps education, many children forego school to go in search of water for their families.
Emmanuel Bugingo, Gorilla Organization’s Rwanda Program Manager, took us to Gitaraga Primary School to give us a tour of a single solution that addressed 3 problems.
A school with over 1000 children enrolled, Gitaraga has a number of big buildings and as one might guess, big buildings have big rooftops. Big rooftops are a spectacular vehicle for water collection, especially in an environment where you can count on rain on an almost daily basis. GO funded the building of a huge water cistern that holds the roof runoff and feeds a collection station where students fill their yellow jugs, supplying their families with water.
The hat trick, in review:
- A new, reliable water source for a water-challenged community
- Water collection is no longer a deterrent to children’s education but is, in fact, a motivation to make sure children get to school every day
- Every water jug filled at school prevents a potential act of illegal entry into the gorilla habitat
The school cistern project has proven a tremendous success, a win for communities and conservationists alike, ringing perfectly true to GO’s philosophy that for gorillas to survive, the people near the gorilla habitat must thrive. Since the project’s genesis, GO has constructed almost 40 cisterns, with plans to build at least 4 more each year going forward.
Arrival in Rwanda: Illuminations from a dark past and learning about a new path
April 16, 2008
At the Ugandan border with Rwanda, we entered a tidy, simple structure where serious men thoughtfully review our documents and carefully write our details in ledger books with sharpened pencils. Outside, a guard raises a simple wooden gate and we leave Uganda, walking 200 yards of netherworld between nations before arriving at another hand raised gate, passing into Rwanda. Once through, we proceeded directly to the visa office where another serious man thoughtfully reviews our documents and carefully writes the details in a ledger book with a sharpened pencil.
Walking out to meet up with our ride into Ruhengeri, two women in brightly colored traditional outfits greeted us with a cheery, “bon jour”. We were checked out of English-speaking Uganda and our arrival into Rwanda was official, er, confirmé.
We were met by Gorilla Organization’s Rwanda Program Manager, Emmanuel Bugingo, a good-humored, one-man welcoming committee. As we drove from the border into Ruhengeri, I found myself lost outside the lively conversation in the car, searching the lush foliage, the buildings, the faces of the people, quietly considering the recent history that rocketed this tiny country into the world’s consciousness:
the horrific 90 days in 1994 when nearly a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were savagely murdered by Hutu extremists.
I knew there would be so much more to learn about Rwanda besides the genocide but truly, I wracked my mind, trying to put myself in the place of the survivors, trying to fathom how a nation, a people recover from such darkness…how does one reconcile experiencing unspeakable brutality and loss to find a light of hope that allows you to step into a present not completely poisoned by the past, to forgive, to attempt to fully live again?
I wondered if Rwanda would prove to be a haven of promise, a purgatory or something altogether different. Surely there is something to learn about humanity here…
However, as curious as I might have been, I had been taught that a good guest does not bring up uncomfortable issues. I figured I’d have to do a lot of studying up while reading between the lines of conversation and behavior to draw my own conclusions.
Fortunately, the Rwandans don’t believe anyone is served if the events of 1994 are left to cryptic language or subtlety.
Our first stop was for lunch at a hotel in Ruhengeri. Once seated, I noticed a prominently posted sign in Kinyarwanda, a major unifying language in Rwanda.
One word in particular caught my eye:”Jenoside”
Okay very curious don’t ask don’t ask don’t ask rude rude rude.
As our drinks were delivered, Emmanuel pointed at the sign and asked if we knew what it said.
Shaking our heads, he translated:
“It reads, ‘Let’s fight together against the genocide ideology of ethnic and regional division and eradicate it’”.
Over following days, we discovered variations of this same text conspicuously in every town, neighborhood… even the tiniest of villages had this sign prominently posted.
When asked about his tribal heritage (a common inquiry in most African nations), Emmanuel quickly, firmly stated, “we are all Rwandan”, a sentiment in ensuing days would be echoed and reinforced by his countrymen.
The initial takeaway was a powerful one: the people here are facing down and learning from their past, choosing to consciously turn from darkness in search of an inclusive future that benefits all Rwandans. A top industry that has been identified as a path to such a future is tourism and the most recognized and appealing assets that draw international travelers to Rwanda is tracking the rare mountain gorilla.
“There is need for every Rwandan to play a role in the promotion of tourism, in conserving environment and in promoting yourselves by providing items and services that you can sell to tourists so that they feel at home whenever they are in the country” - Rwandan President Paul Kagame
Conservation need not be a one way street. True, for the gorillas to survive, the people near the gorillas must thrive. Rwanda GO has its own unique programs designed to help the people near the gorilla habitat thrive - cisterns at schools and indigenous community uplift. A complementary strategy is the well designed ecotourism destination in which gorilla survival directly benefits the people near the gorillas.
Community-owned Sabinyo Silverback Lodge provides high end accommodation to gorilla trackers and direct benefits to the people living near the lodge and park.
Intrigued? Onward!
Kisoro, part II: Going organic for the gorillas; dancing on the edge of DRC
April 7, 2008
The following morning we returned to the Gorilla Organization (GO) offices in Kisoro and met with Regina Sanyu, coordinator for GO’s Organic Farming Association projects in Uganda. Regina recently joined the Kisoro office from Rwanda where she had worked for 3 years as a part of a program that successfully trained 5,000 farmers in sustainable, organic techniques.
What does organic farming have to do with gorillas? Encroachment on gorilla habitat for the creation of new farmland has been and is likely to remain the biggest threat to the earth’s remaining gorilla population. In short, organic methods produce higher crop yields by leveraging farm by-products such as compost and manure alongside crop management techniques such as complimentary planting and crop rotation, eliminating the need for costly synthetic pesticides and fertilizers that compromise soil quality and helpful animal/insect populations. Threats of encroachment are lowered when farmers have more fruitful harvests on existing farmlands - they can make their endeavors more efficient and profitable without expanding their acreage.
You’re noticing a theme, I hope… for gorillas to survive, the people near the gorilla habitat must thrive. Even if you like animals more than people (and I know there are a few of you out there), you have to admit this is a pretty smart win-win strategy for creatures and humankind alike.
The first farmer we visited was a woman who raised rabbits, chickens and goats, providing them with shelters of elevated pens with slat floors, a simple system that makes harvesting manure for fertilizer a much cleaner, higher yield process. She also had a simple yet effective solar water purification system, storing collected water in clear bottles and placing them on a silver sheet of corrugated metal which acted as solar collector. After a day in the sun, the bottle water gets hot enough to be purified and safely drink without sacrificing a stitch of fuel or infusing a drop of chemicals.
Rattling down the road in the back of GO’s Land Cruiser toward our second farm, I hadn’t realized how close we were to the historically trouble fraught eastern edge of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Our first stop had been to a farm 2 kilometers away from the Uganda/DRC border, while the second farm we visited abutted the border itself, an area through which many Congolese fled DRC as refugees in times of conflict. Many residents view the border between the two nations less as delineation between nation states and more as a region in and of itself with its own sense of “locals”, with Congolese living peacefully and productively just over the border in Uganda without traditional immigration documentation, quietly paying rent and contributing positively to their new community.
Regina was very proud of the woman who ran the second farm on the edge of DRC - an exemplary participant in Uganda’s nascent organic farming program. As we walked her farm, Regina spoke at length at how she had attended every training seminar and actively teaches and supports other farmers in the program. In addition, she had provided sanctuary to DRC refugees on her property - up to 25 people at a time - feeding them from the bounty of her crops and livestock.
To acknowledge her efforts, Regina arranged for her to be a recipient of a fuel-efficient, firewood saving stove. A design made out of local clay that can reduce firewood consumption up to 70%, Regina herself committed her own time and labor to help assemble the stove for this very deserving recipient.
GO has provided over 3,000 firewood saving stoves and planted more than half a million trees around national parks, lowering the pressure of encroachment and illegal deforestation of gorilla habitat while (theme again, people) providing smart, simple technologies that provide economic relief + improve the air quality for residents around gorilla habitat.
Everyone, all together now:
For gorillas to survive, the people near the gorilla habitat must thrive. Three cheers to the Gorilla Organization for investing in a grass roots powered survive/thrive approach to environmental protection. Supporting people and communities to make more sustainable choices is a common sense success story of the best kind: a bright light for conservation strategies in an extremely challenging environment.
Kisoro, part I: Averting extinction by educating and empowering communities
April 7, 2008
We headed southwest toward Uganda’s shared borders with DRC and Rwanda, passing through mountainous, heavily cultivated farmlands that supply more than half of Uganda’s produce from a verdant patchwork of terraced plots that appear to cover every inch of the region. As daylight flickered to a close, we ascended through the fog of bamboo-filled Echulya Forest Preserve before dropping into Kisoro, a town located near Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, home to one of the world’s last populations of critically endangered mountain gorillas.
The next day we joined the morning commute of pedestrians, bicycles and motorcycles to meet the staff at Gorilla Organization’s Kisoro office.
Gorilla Organization (GO) works internationally to save the world’s last gorillas from extinction. Their conservation strategies target long term poverty alleviation and environmental education projects in poor communities around gorilla habitats, involving communities in conservation initiatives, providing viable alternatives to the unsustainable use of forest resources.
GO’s hallmark is small, grass roots projects run by local partners, strengthened by the Organization’s mindful management practices that include monthly funding and reporting cycles and a high level of communication between headquarters and local programs, placing strong emphasis on developing local capacity in Africa.
Sam Nsingwire, Ugandan Program Manager at GO’s Kisoro, gave us an overview of local programs before leading us off for a tour of projects. Our first stop was the Kisoro Beekeeper’s Cooperative Society, an organization that supports this traditional trade by educating local beekeepers in new techniques and equipment that make harvest of bee products safer and more efficient along with providing processing, packaging and marketing support for their products, thereby enabling community members to transform a long established subsistence endeavor into a lucrative business.
David, a farmer on the collective’s board, gave us a tour of his farm - an organic Eden shaded by over 100 gigantic avocado trees. He grows coffee as well as myriad vegetables and fruits in the rich black soil of his property. A 3rd generation beekeeper, he keeps his bees happy with shade, a ready source of water and a yellow moon flower tree with gracefully bowed butter-hued trumpets (heck, they’re so pretty I’d pollinate them).
David has a mix of traditional, older apiaries alongside the newer designs. As familiar and sentimental as he might be with the older designs, he readily embraces the new apiaries that have been introduced by the GO supported Beekeeping Cooperative as they allow him to harvest honey more efficiently, reaping a bigger yield and sparing his hardworking bees the hive destruction required to harvest traditional apiaries
Later that day, we stopped by Mutolere Primary School to visit a compelling program that GO helped establish to encourage environmental awareness in the next generation. Wildlife Clubs of Uganda and Rwanda are extra curricular conservation groups whose members are taught sustainable environmental education via educator presentations as well as theater activities including song and dance. In addition, students are exposed to sustainable agricultural practices through cultivating organic food crops + planting native tree species on school grounds and in the surrounding community. Mutolere students involved in the program enjoy Wildlife Club benefits including weekly school-based activities, a quarterly newsletter and field trips to the country’s national parks.
Dennis Agaba, the lead teacher, swiftly assembled the Wildlife Club members, touring us through their recently planted raised bed gardens. Dennis then informed us that the club members wanted to sing to us. The voices of 80 children rose in a moving call and response song with the bright, clear tones of a young girl calling the lead. Wildlife club members acted out lyrics about planting and preservation as the other students gathered around us to watch + listen.
Wildlife Clubs have proven to be a unique opportunity to virally message habitat preservation and sustainable practices - members take what they learn about conservation into the schoolyard, the community and their homes, educating friends and family to issues + alternatives to deforestation, encroachment + poaching.
It was exciting to see GO’s remarkably successful grass roots programs in action -evolving traditional beekeeping into profitable venture and educating the next generation in thoughtful stewardship are progressive programs that serve the communities, environment and species whose futures hang in the balance.
Mihingo Lodge, part III: Kids acting out in the name of conservation
March 19, 2008
That afternoon, we joined resident manager Kate Ward in a trip into the village to observe an environmental conservation class that she teaches at the primary school.
A volunteer teacher who uses Honey Fund dollars for supplies, Kate talks with the children about the National Park and the value of its animal population to the community as a natural resource for education/beauty for the community as well as the reason that tourist dollars come into their village to fund key projects including education.
What I found most striking is how very little these kids knew of the animals in their midst yet how quickly they started making the connection. Kate used a whole series of teaching techniques including story telling, games, songs and acting… it was hard to not join in:
What makes an eland special? Big horns? Yes! Big horns! Everyone be an eland and show me your big horns!
The children’s conservation class was followed by the adult literacy program which Kate also teaches. We were advised that adults were shy about our observing their class, so we didn’t linger, but Kate let us know that she was pleased to see class attendance increase. The weekly class usually starts with a handful of adults, but over the course of a session, up to 40 adults from the village assemble to listen in. Many of the adults in the village cannot read or write, so filling out basic school forms for their children an overwhelming, humiliating task. Kate has seen the excitement and pride in the faces of the adults in her class as they learn to spell their own children’s names.
With its mindful participation and support of environmental, conservation, education and community outreach, the committed owners and staff of Mihingo Lodge prove that a luxury safari destination can also be an exemplary environmental steward and community advocate.
Mihingo Lodge, part II: Take care of your neighbors, scavengers though they may be
March 19, 2008
I probably should have let them know that I can be very hard to wake up.
I came to at 5:45 AM with the voice of hotel proprietor Ralph at my door courteously PLEADING for me to rise so that our group could get underway for hyena tracking. This curious activity requires an early roll call - hyenas are easiest to locate during the pre-dawn return to their dens after an evening’s hunt.
At Lake Mburo National Park headquarters, we meet our hyena tracking guide, friendly park ranger Andrew, and we head off toward the hyena dens directly.
A few things to know - spotted hyenas subcontract their den construction. Anteaters do the dirty work, burrowing into the ground in search of insects - when the bug well runs dry, anteaters move on, hyenas take up residence.
We’d walked perhaps 15 minutes before meeting up with the first silhouette in the sepia of pre dawn. Andrew made calls that mimicked a hyena kill announcement, communication back to the pack that it’s mealtime. It clearly piqued their interest - more trotted into view.
I had figured, like so many wild creatures, that they’d run from a stinky pack of coffee addled humans with noisy cameras, and while they did seem wary, I wouldn’t call them afraid. Flash photography didn’t faze them and some even seemed curious about us, sniffing the air and taking steps toward us…. which reads as lurking calculation.
The beasts have a brazen edginess and a misunderstood bad boy charm - magnetic, but you somehow know to not turn your back.
Amidst the tracking, Mihingo Lodge owner Ralph explained a predator/scavenger conservation program that he’s very keen on launching in the nearby communities. Seems that local farmers blame the park’s relatively small leopard population on a number of livestock kills and, in response, farmers poison the remaining carcasses in hopes of killing the predator that perpetrated the act. Leopards are at risk, but more often than not, it’s the scavengers who are poisoned - hyenas + vultures who play an integral part of the park’s ecosystem.
Ralph’s leopard and hyena project proposal is to pay farmers for livestock lost to verified predator kills and eliminate the practice of poisoning that sabotages the scavenger population. Farmers would need to have suspected predator kills inspected + verified in the first 24 hrs after the incident. If it’s determined that the kill fits the profile of a leopard attack, the farmer would be paid for the livestock loss on the spot and the carcass would be removed in whole immediately, lessening the farmer’s drive for retribution and eliminating the vehicle for poisoning. It seems to be a well thought out solution that doesn’t punish the farmer or the wildlife… now just the matter of getting funding and implementation before the predator and scavenger population is poisoned out of existence…
Mihingo Lodge, part I: High style, low impact - everybody wins
March 19, 2008
From Nile Safari Lodge, we caught a lift back into Kampala for the night. We were met the next morning by Mihingo Lodge proprietor, Ralph Schenk, who spirited us westward toward the lodge and Lake Mburo National Park.
Conversation in the car was lively and Ralph, who is also co-owner of Banana Boat craft stores with his partner Suni, is an incredible source of information and opinions about many issues challenging Africa. His upbringing was a mix of influences of Africa, where he was born, and Europe, where his parents were raised and he was educated. At age 19, Ralph took an epic road trip over the whole of Africa, an odyssey that galvanized his passion for the continent. He focused his collegiate + graduate studies along with volunteer endeavors on economics, agriculture, conservation and alternative energy, mindful of what education would best serve the environment, community as well as his entrepreneurial interests in Africa.
We uneventfully crossed from the north to the south side of the equator (we opted to spare Ralph our tourist glee as he’d made the journey countless times). In the town of Lyantonde, we turned onto a dirt road toward Nshara Gate into Lake Mburo National Park and our hotel shuttle turned into a game drive as zebra, African buffalo and warthogs seemed to spring up from the ether across the park’s grassland.
Situated on a hilltop adjacent to Lake Mburo Park, Mihingo Lodge’s commanding views of the park and nearby lakes are a feast to the eyes. Ralph and Suni came up with an initial design that embraced high end safari lodge style and services with environmentally smart design. They created lodge facilities and bungalows that optimize the site’s natural attributes for both aesthetic beauty and ease of harnessing and harvesting solar power and rainwater to fuel lodge operations.
Guest quarters have been crafted with the seemingly improbable combination of spectacular vistas and supreme privacy. In décor, a tasteful minimalism prevails, yielding to the visual draw of the natural surroundings. Bedrooms and bathrooms are almost imperceptibly screened, providing unprecedented views of everything except the neighbors (as lovely as they might be).
Mihingo Lodge established a program, initially fueled by retail sales of local honey, to serve the community just outside the park gates. The Honey Fund benefits the Akashenshero area, providing an educational resource fund for Rurambira primary school, offering volunteer-run environmental education and adult literacy programs. The fund has recently assisted in tending to major medical issues that have faced community residents including reconstructive surgery to child’s cleft palate and an operation to repair a local girl’s bowed leg.
The afternoon of our arrival, Ralph took us on a trip to nearby Kazumi Lookout for a visual tour and history of the surrounding area and that evening, we convened in the lodge’s open air dining room overlooking a watering hole in Lake Mburo National Park. With impala and eland as our inspiration, we too sought refreshment. Over bottles of Nile Special, the boys and I determined that we’d spend the following morning tracking hyenas in the park and spend the afternoon checking out Honey Fund projects at the local primary school - opportunities to see how all the lodge’s neighbors are faring.