Their future

We’ve been impressed by how organized the tracking is. Although still with no clear idea as to where your $500 per person goes to. Although some supposedly finds it’s way into the local community, and for paying for the numerous park staff, we guess that most is swallowed by the government…

There is obviously understanding that education of local people and helping them to find alternative sources of income will help to preserve what little habitat there is left for them. There are 700 odd mountain gorillas left, that population seems to be stable, but this region is not.

One unstable nation leads to the increased migration of humans and the knock on effects of food, fuel and building material shortages. Years of investment just stabilizing the population, could be wiped out in a single conflict. They say the fee is going up again next year to $1000. We can only think that this will dessimate visitor numbers. Will anyone be willing to pay that for 1hr? Fewer tourists means less jobs, less money for local communities, more hardship. And if the people are struggling, the gorillas struggle too.