The land of primates and wild adventures, Nyungwe forest tops as one of the prime reasons for Rwanda’s tourism development in the past years. Looking at the most done Rwanda tours every year, the country receives 80% tourists for gorilla & chimpanzee tracking holidays to Nyungwe and volcanoes national park. The forest isn’t just a home to several primate species but the world’s most beautiful mountain rain forest and the oldest in Africa.
Nature and wildlife experiences in the park each day continues to draw thousands of guests to Rwanda to engage in different park activities: the canopy walk, hiking & biking in the terrain, tracking chimpanzees, viewing adorable birds and also chilling close the park water falls. The same natural beauty attracted the current President and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society Dr Cristián Samper to visit Rwanda and advised the country to remain committed to conservation especially the Nyungwe Forest ecosystem converting over 1000 square kilometers.This was said during his brief meeting with a selection of travel journalists in Rwanda accompanied by some of the trustees of WCS while on his visit.
He also added that more conservation effort for Nyungwe Forest will keep and maintain the park treasures for ages because losing it would be a huge loss to the country. The forest is of a great importance to Rwanda as it provides more than 40 per cent of the water used all around the country and it’s also a home to lots of biodiversity hence discouraging agriculture for tourism development as quoted saying. “You cannot do agriculture, you can’t have tourism or development if you destroy Nyungwe,”
Dr Samper lauded the Rwandan government for ensuring peace in the country, which he said was vital in ensuring conservation of tourism facilities. Due to this, unlike other countries, Rwanda suffers less from poaching and smuggling of ivory. “The Rwanda Development Board does a very good job at managing the parks here,” he added. However, Rwanda should have good infrastructure and build a strong capacity to manage the parks and other attractions in order to have a Rwanda growing tourism sector.
But Samper tackled poaching in three ways since it’s a general tourism threat which can’t phase out completely in a country’s. He said “We have to stop the killings of animals through better law enforcement in the parks, stop the trafficking of ivory and other illegal wildlife activities and also stop the demand for these products”. In his closure observations, he pointed out the need for countries to be aware of the carrying capacity of their tourism facilities. He wondered, “At what point do you say this is enough or else we are going to lose the tourism product?”
Above all he acknowledged the great effort Rwanda has put in the tourism industry to become a reality model to other countries in the region. In his conclusion, he stated that the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) will continue to support and stand in conservation partnership which started back then since 1959 but became more serious in the last 25 years that have seen Wildlife Conservation Society support Nyungwe forest.
To take you back, the Wildlife conservation society manages the wold’s largest collection of urban parks in USA and also monitors a global conservation program in over 60 nations in the world. The organization also partners with NGOs, foundations, governments, botanical gardens, and zoos and aquariums in the United States and across the world to address a range of conservation issues the reason for its presence in Rwanda.
Travelers to Africa for sustainable travel, Nyungwe Forest is open year round for amazing Africa primate safaris that create unique wildlife experience as one explores through the forest in green mountain lushes and the cooling mist in the landscape which is found only here in Rwanda. Sounds and views give travelers company as they become more curious of whom to meet next in the forest. Chimpanzee trekking is the most famous park activity done in either Cyandungu or Uwinka but interesting this fast moving animals move in groups and can be easily seen when fig trees fruits ripen especially during march- May when Rwanda experiences some rain showers.
