![]() REPORTER: So you don't mind spending the money on something like this? But it is a wonderful experience to be here. It is really regretful that this doesn't happen to all those people who would really get a benefit out of it. But, you know, it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and if you are fortunate enough to have the money, well, it's great. This is my third trip to Africa.īILL MUSSELMAN, TOURIST: Money always worries me. Hearing stories of gorillas being poached prompted this group's journey.ĭEE MUSSELMAN, TOURIST: I'm here because I am concerned about the gorillas and what is happening to them on a continuous basis, and I wanted the experience of seeing them. The majority of this seasoned group of travellers - all friends - hail from the United States. They are endangered species, they are endangered because of their loss of habitat. ROSETTE RUGAMBA: When somebody buys a gorilla permit, they don't just straightaway go to the gorillas - they stay in a hotel, they pay for transportation, they buy a souvenir, so the worth of a gorilla permit is probably $33 million in Rwanda.īack at Volcanoes National Park, the trackers have called in the gorillas' locations and final briefings are under way in readiness for the tourists' departure.ĪNACALET, GUIDE: Where you won't see this great species elsewhere in the world apart from here in the Virunga Massif. REPORTER: What are the gorillas worth in the overall tourism picture to Rwanda? ROSETTE RUGAMBA: When we package the special things that we have in this country, then we actually say, "If you are ready to pay for it, then come to Rwanda, but if you are really not ready to pay for it, then probably this is not the right destination for you." Such is its success that the Tourism Authority no longer calls on the government for public funds. A once-only permit to visit the gorillas costs about $480, and that fee is about to rise to $640 in coming months. To get this close to wild gorillas is not cheap. ![]() It's high-end ecotourism, a strategy that has struck a cord, tourism arrivals have doubled in recent years. Now tourism authorities are working to overturn the country's image from killing ground to vacation spot. See - is his communication to say I am a friend and we are coming.ĭuring the 1990s, the gorillas' habitat became a battleground in a decade of ethnic violence and genocide. LEONIDAS ZIMARINDA, (Translation): The poachers set traps for antelopes and buffalo but the gorillas also end up getting caught in them.įrancois says the trackers have one major advantage over the poachers when it comes to getting close to the gorillas, and that's speaking the same language.įRANCOIS: If you talk to the gorillas, the gorilla sees this is my friend who is coming, now he talks "hmmmmmmmm". One of the greatest dangers for both trackers and gorillas is poachers. ![]() Francois began working here almost a decade ago.įRANCOIS: You see the plants for eating, celery, various kinds of mushrooms because the gorillas eat many different plants. Reading the jungle takes years of practice. When I get find them, I keep an eye on them. LEONIDAS ZIMARINDA, TRACKER, (Translation): I come early in the morning to track the gorillas from where I left them the night before. Leonidas Zimarinda has watched over Rwanda's gorillas for almost 30 years. It's first light, and a team of trackers sets out to try and locate one of the seven mountain gorilla families that live on the Rwandan side of the Virunga volcanoes. ![]() And you really cannot conserve if you are over-exploiting what you have. ROSETTE RUGAMBA, RWANDAN TOURISM AUTHORTY: We do not want to just reap from tourism, but we want to make sure that tourism that helps conserving. While humans remain one of the gorillas' greatest threats, in the heart of Central Africa, it's tourism that's keeping them alive. In Rwanda's Virunga mountains live some of the last 700 or so wild mountain gorillas to roam the planet. ![]()
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