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.
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.