Renner in Rwanda (Part 1)
September 26, 2011
Written by Dr. Michael J. Renner, Drake University
I have to admit that when I first heard about the “Forest of Hope” project a couple of years ago, I thought it would never happen.
The idea of reconnecting scattered fragments of a rain forest into a sustainable ecosystem, large enough to support the populations of monkeys and chimpanzees that are hanging on in these fragments, seemed audacious but probably doomed to fail. But I no longer think that. The program can succeed, bringing self-reliance through sustainable economic and environmental benefits to a part of the world that needs them.
The Gishwati Area Conservation Program is a big, messy puzzle, with elements of primatology, politics, sociology, environmental stewardship… in short, just the kind of puzzle I love. One element of the puzzle is the issue of crop raiding, which is what we call it when animals treat human agricultural areas as a buffet that has been laid before them. Crop raiding can cause tension between the goals of the project and the legitimate need of the local human populations to make a living. And that’s where I come in. If we can figure out why it’s happening at Gishwati and devise ways to reduce or eliminate it, the project’s chances of success go up.
Great Ape Trust Senior Advisor Peter Clay and I are headed to Gishwati for the next 10 days. Our objective is to gather some data, give me a chance to get to know the program staff at Gisenyi and Kinihira, figure out our next steps, and identify research projects and tests of various possible approaches to mitigation of crop raiding that might have good roles for primatology students at Drake University, where I am a faculty member in Biology and Psychology.
Today’s agenda began in Des Moines, Iowa with a flight to Newark, New Jersey, where I am writing this. From Newark, we have an 8-hour flight to Brussels, Belgium, and then another 8-hour flight to Kigali, Rwanda. (Yes, one of the routes to Rwanda involves flying to Europe and then turning right…)
More to come…
Miguel Roig says:
What a worthwhile project. I hope your efforts pay off with an effective strategy that will allow the various primate species to coexist peacefully.