Gorilla tourism and communities around Bwindi impenetrable forest.

Shared across districts of Kabale, Kisoro, and Kanungu, Bwindi impenetrable National Park stretches a sizable portion of southwest Uganda. Almost half of all the mountain gorillas in the world live here, making over 400,000 total.

Before Bwindi Impenetrable forest was gazzatted as a national park, local people and villages in kisoro, kabale and kanungu used to directly profit from the forest by gathering firewood, harnessing honey, hunting forest elephants, monkeys among others. They would also gather plants and drugs to treat malaria and other diseases. Practically, the local population considered their own as Bwindi impenetrable forest and felt they had rights over it.

Using Uganda Wildlife Authority, the government of Uganda decided in 1991 to classify Bwindi Impenetrable forest as a national park. This meant that, in terms of direct forest use at least, the local kabala, kisoro, and Kanungu communities surrendered their mandate to the Uganda government.

our did not go well in certain areas of the community as one elderly man complained that “God made sure he supplied a resource to the local communities in each region when He was building this planet.” God provided them Lake Victoria in central Uganda as a resource to support them by giving water, fish and leisure and so for that matter, the people of Kabale, Kanungu and kisoro were given Bwindi Forest as source of survival interms of firewood, medicine, hunting and honey harnessing.

Tell your government, then, that what they are doing is unacceptable. The Batwa people, who had been living in this forest for hundreds of millions of years, had seen it as their home. Their own will drove them out of the woodland when it was gazzatted.

Looking at the above, one wonders whether gorilla tracking helps the communities more than it did in past times. Uganda Wildlife authority began using the local people as rangers and guides after it took over the forest, therefore enabling them to somewhat profit from it rather than destroy it. Uganda Wildlife Authority’s motto, “Conserving for generations,” led them to provide an opportunity to all young people—especially those in school—to work as porters for gorilla hikers in order to generate some school fees and money to purchase books. our is considered as directly benefiting the younger generation, who will shape the future of our nation.

Revenue sharing involved a certain percentage of park entrance fees paid by visitors being returned to the nearby communities to build roads, hospitals, and other infrastructure absent from Bwindi impenetrable National Park when gorilla tracking tourism had not begun. Actually, the communities are gaining from this more than they have ever done.

Thanks to gorilla tracking, several community enterprises have emerged around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. A testimony to the fact that gorilla tourism has indeed been a revelation in as far as community development is concerned is camp sites like Buhoma community Bandas, craft shops and so many small businesses around buhoma, Ruhija and in the southern part of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.