A young male Mountain Gorilla, Gorilla beringei beringei, climbs into the light in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in eastern Uganda. Bwindi Impenetrable supports nearly half of the world’s Mountain Gorillas.
This is a bonus image for today, as it’s World Wildlife Day 2021, with a particular theme of “Forests and Livelihoods: Sustaining People and Planet”.
“Since 1995, $10 from each gorilla permit fee and 20 percent of each park entrance fee has gone to the five districts bordering the Bwindi and Mgahinga national parks: Kabale, Rubanda, Kisoro, Kanungu and Rukungiri.
These proceeds are used to fund various projects, most of them aimed at reducing gorilla-human conflict by improving the livelihoods of the local communities. In the past, this included the construction of schools, health centers and roads
The community projects being funded today by those same permits include the rearing of goats and pigs, tree planting, bee keeping, potato farming, and assisting community groups to construct commercial accommodation facilities for tourists, says Stephen Asiimwe, chief executive officer of the Uganda Tourism Board. “The objective is to show the local communities the benefits that will come with their active participation in the conservation efforts.”
Deusdedit Ruhangariyo
This photo at the top of the page is copyright © Liz Leyden. All rights strictly as agreed in writing with the author or her agent.
It is available for sale as various types of wall art, and as home and personal accessories, from my gallery at Pixels.com.
My Mountain Gorilla photo is also available to purchase as a stock photo from my portfolio at iStock.
