East African Business Week (Kampala)
Bosco Hitimana
24 June 2009
Kigali — The Rwandan Ministry of Trade and Industry has drafted the wildlife act in a move to streamline conservation efforts in the country.
"We needed to streamline what we do through a policy because it becomes a working document on which all stakeholders agree," said Rosette Rugamba, Deputy CEO for Tourism and Conservation at the Rwanda Development Board.
Rugamba told East African Business Week last week that Rwanda has put in place other policies but that a critical wildlife act was missing. The first draft is ready.
Rwanda recently organized a one-day conservation conference under the theme 'Challenges and Opportunities for Gorilla Conservation in the Greater Virunga Massif", attracting over 100 conservationists.
The renowned conservationist and tropical field biologist, Mr. Ian Redmond, told conservationists at the conference that they can't conserve gorillas and protect forests without involving the community.
Rwanda, whose 10% of the total land is reserved, has taken further steps towards conserving its three national parks.
One of the steps taken by Rwanda is that 5% of the total tourism revenue is allocated to community projects of long-term benefits.
Close to Rwf500 million has been injected into construction of schools, health centres, roads, water tanks and income generating activities such as beekeeping and handcrafts shops for former park poachers.
Rugamba said they encounter many challenges but the major one is human and wildlife conflict, fighting for space as a result of Rwanda's smallness and dense population.
"To try and create that balance is a huge challenge but we can at least say we are making good progress by mobilizing the communities to understand the benefits of conservation," she said.
For instance, the communities fenced the Volcanoes National Park, the home to the mountain gorillas, after understanding the dangers caused by the animals that leave the park illegally.
Over the past ten years, Rwanda has not lost even a single inch of the reserved land and some species like lions that were on the verge of extinction have started increasing and they can now be easily seen.
The last census showed that gorillas had increased by 17% and they have been increasing tremendously after the census as every year new baby gorillas get names.
On the regional level where Rwanda, Uganda and DR. Congo meet to conserve the Greater Virunga Massif in the Albertine rift that accommodates many animal species, Rugamba said, a secretariat has been set up and housed in Kigali.
The Dutch government has so far boosted the joint conservation effort with four million Euros to run the secretariat and execute the ten-year strategic plan put up by the three countries.
In Rwanda, a community complex to the tune of US$110, 000, has been built. Uganda and Congo are also doing different things to conserve the biodiversity.
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