Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)
14 July 2008
Kigali — The countries sharing the Virunga park - home to the world's rare mountain gorillas - are in discussion to conserve biodiversity and support development objectives laid out in a 10-year Strategic Plan, RNA reports.
Under the auspices of the U.S. government and other partners, regional Ministers are in a conference which will highlight the successes and challenges to conservation and economic development in the transboundary Virungas region, shared between Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
U.S. Assistant Secretary for Oceans, Environment and Science Claudia McMurray is in attendance at the two-day conference in north western Rwanda that will work out implementation mechanisms for the 100 million dollar plan established in 2006.
The governments in the three countries are keen to conserve the unique natural resources of the region at a time when tourists are flocking in at numbers never seen.
Last year alone, Rwanda got some $7 million from gorilla tourism. From the same amount, Rwanda is said to have handed some 300.000 dollars to DR Congo as transfer fees because the gorillas often trek between the two borders.
The endangered mountain gorillas - about one third of the 750 mountain gorillas only left in the world - still survive in the Virunga Massif, a chain of volcanic mountains linking Rwanda to the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Uganda.
The mountain gorillas still survive mainly thanks to the renewed efforts of the national conservation authorities and the local populations of the three countries. Various international NGOs have also engaged through advocacy towards the protection of mountain gorillas and their active role in conservation.
In total, the sector attracted some 42.3 million dollars in the same year.
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