Gishwati Forest to Become Rwanda National Park, Great Ape Trust Concludes Successful Initiative

(Des Moines, Iowa-December 12, 2011) Just four years ago it was a single vision shared by the president of Rwanda and a businessman in Iowa. Today, the Gishwati Area Conservation Program (GACP) is a successful conservation initiative that has culminated with the designation of Gishwati Forest as Rwanda's newest national park and an international tourism destination.

"To a conservationist, nothing can be more satisfying than the restoration of a damaged ecosystem and its designation as a national park that will secure its biodiversity in perpetuity," said Dr. Benjamin Beck, conservation director of Great Ape Trust, which directs and supports GACP. "Even better is local support for the park, by those who previously might have exploited its resources for short-term gain."

These were exactly the goals articulated by Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Ted Townsend in a 2007 Clinton Global Initiative agreement that gave Great Ape Trust responsibility for management, restoration, and protection of the extremely degraded Gishwati Forest in western Rwanda.

"Despite widespread skepticism, our team and our Rwandan colleagues exceeded all of our goals in just four short years," says Peter Clay, the Trust's special advisor to the Gishwati program. "In an era of devastating environmental setbacks, the Gishwati story shines as a model for conservation success."

Through demarcation of legal boundaries and the annexation of illegally occupied land, the protected area of Gishwati has increased an impressive 67 percent from 2,190 to 3,665 acres. Tree cover and diversity have increased. A small population of East African chimpanzees, once teetering on the brink of extinction, has grown 54 percent from 13 to 20 apes-likely the first time the Gishwati chimpanzee population has increased in more than 40 years. Endangered golden monkeys and mountain monkeys are rebounding as well.

Today, the Trust's Gishwati Area Conservation Program - led by Rwandan, Madeleine Nyiratuza - employs 26 Rwandans, and is an economic engine in the communities surrounding Gishwati. Because of the vigilence and dedication of GACP's ecoguards, people have ceased illegal activities in the core of the forest. Students and working adults in 15 schools and 10 cooperatives as well as officials of the Rutsiro District government are partnering with GACP to help restore Gishwati. Dr. Rebecca Chancellor and other scientists are studying how the chimpanzees make their living in such a small forest. New animals and plants, some previously unknown to science, are discovered regularly. Scientists and students from Drake University in Des Moines are studying the best reforestation techniques for Gishwati, keeping careful track of tree growth, and exploring ways to connect Gishwati with other forest areas. Staff training programs, collaborations with cooperatives, and hosting students from Rwanda National University to conduct senior theses have already contributed to local and national capacity building. Two graduate students from the United Kingdom have completed master's theses in Gishwati, and student groups from Iowa State University and Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa have made work-study visits.

Great Ape Trust will discontinue its Gishwati involvement early in 2012, as the Rwandan government assumes responsibility for forest management and protection. Beck, Clay and Trust director of communications Al Setka will continue to provide advice.

"Gishwati is back in Rwandan hands, as it should be. It's bigger, richer and better understood than it was just four years ago," Beck said. "Because of Ted Townsend's vision and support, Gishwati is now poised to become a major new research and international ecotourism destination, like the nearby Volcanoes National park with its famous mountain gorillas."

In a letter to Mr. Townsend marking the Trust's turnover of Gishwati management to the Rwandan government, Stanislas Kamanzi, Minister of Natural Resources, writes, "It is with great pleasure that I express to you my sincere gratitude for your remarkable contribution to our endeavors to restore and improve the conservation of the Gishwati Natural Forest. The Government of Rwanda will always value your personal effort to avail appropriate expertise and financial resources for the rehabilitation of the Gishwati ecosystems with particular focus to creating a viable habitat for chimpanzees."

GISHWATI AREA CONSERVATION PROGRAM BACKGROUND

The Gishwati National Forest's history of deforestation extended over many decades. A forest that covered about 70,000 acres in 1930, was nearly depleted because of ill-advised large-scale cattle ranching projects, resettlement of refugees after the 1994 genocide, inefficient small-plot farming and the establishment of plantations of non-native trees. As a result, the area has been plagued with catastrophic flooding, erosion, landslides, decreased soil fertility, decreased water quality and heavy river siltation-all of which aggravate a cycle of poverty.

In late 2007, the President of Rwanda, His Excellency Paul Kagame, and Great Ape Trust Founder and Chair Ted Townsend of Des Moines, Iowa, pledged at the Clinton Global Initiative conference to create a "national conservation park" in Rwanda to benefit climate, biodiversity and the welfare of the Rwandan people. In early 2008, the Gishwati Forest Reserve in western Rwanda, disregarded for years by international conservation organizations, was chosen as the site of the future park-and the Gishwati Area Conservation Program (GACP) began.

In 2010, the Rwandan Ministry of Lands and Environment (now the Ministry of Natural Resources) entered into a Memorandum of Understanding granting GACP responsibility for managing the protected forest while endorsing the most challenging element of the project-a 30 mile-long forest corridor connecting Gishwati to Nyungwe National Park.

Gishwati Forest to Become Rwanda National Park, Great Ape Trust Concludes Successful Initiative