RWANDA: Rwanda, along with other east African countries uses gorilla naming ceremonies to draw tourists

The East African Mountain Gorilla is making a comeback and countries in the region are using a unique gorilla naming ceremony to draw thousands of well-heeled tourists. Tourists are the future of Rwanda's gorilla conservancy programme. Successful conservation in recent years has led to an increase in the numbers of Eastern Highland Gorillas. But more money is needed to fund their future recovery, and Rwanda has found a win-win solution. Desperate to revive its economy, Rwanda began attracting tourists to a unique gorilla "naming" ceremony in 2005. So successful was the venture that the ceremony has become an annual event and has even been exported to other east African countries like Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The group of ten gorillas, in Ruhengeri Park, are named Hirwa (Luck, in English) after the current alpha male. Four of the babies, all around a month old, will receive names next month. Hirwa's original alpha male, Munyinya, left and formed a new group called Susa, which has 5 females and 4 babies. Three of the baby gorillas in the Susa group and one female are amongst the 23 gorillas to be named in a ceremony later this year. "2005 we named 30 gorillas, and in 2006 we named 13, this year we will name 23. All that is the success in gorillas conservation we want to share with the world," Rosette Rugambwa Chantal, the Director of Tourism in Rwanda said. The World Wildlife Fund has reported that East Africa's endangered mountain gorillas are making a slow but steady comeback due to a decade of conservation efforts to counter the impact of war and poaching. "We have the only surviving gorillas twins in the world, in Susa group. But two days ago we had another birth of twins but unfortunately one of them passed away and we are praying that this other one continues to survive," Chantal added. But with only about 720 in total left in the wild, the fund has said that more needs to be done to safeguard their survival. The primates are split between the Virunga volcanoes that straddle Uganda, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). They are a top attraction in Uganda and Rwanda, where tourists pay hundreds of dollars a day to track them through the dense forests. But in eastern DRC they are at risk from warring militias that make Congo's reserves too dangerous to visit. Rebels there were accused this year of killing and eating two silverback gorillas -- adult males so called for their grey fur -- but later apparently agreed to stop hunting them.

ITN Source | May 9, 2007

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