Rwanda's Gishwati Forest is home to 14 chimpanzees who are on the brink of extinction.

Conservation effort in Africa seeks individuals’ expertise to help restore rain forest, save great apes and alleviate poverty

Des Moines, Iowa – December 20, 2009 - Your know-how could help create a Forest of Hope in Africa. An ambitious conservation effort in Rwanda is seeking individuals' with a wide range of expertise to help restore a degraded rain forest, save a small colony of endangered chimpanzees and deliver economic sustainability to one of the world’s poorest regions.

"We know that we can’t save chimpanzees without helping people, and we can’t help people without saving chimpanzees," Dr. Benjamin Beck.

The initiative is called the Gishwati Area Conservation Program (GACP) and it began in late 2007 when H.E. President Paul Kagame and Great Ape Trust Founder Ted Townsend pledged at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting to found a “national conservation park” in Rwanda to benefit climate, biodiversity and the welfare of the Rwandan people.

The Gishwati Forest Reserve, long recognized as ‘beyond hope’ by international conservation groups, was selected as the site of the future park. At the time, however, the Gishwati Reserve had only 2,250 acres of natural forest and a chimpanzee population of 13 apes. Neither the forest nor the chimpanzee population would survive without immediate protection. But the challenge was formidable.

Gishwati’s history of deforestation extended over 50 years, in part because of ill-advised large-scale cattle ranching projects, resettlement of refugees after the 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, landslides, erosion, decreased soil fertility, decreased water quality and heavy river siltation – all of which aggravate a cycle of abject poverty.

The size of the Gishwati Forest was reduced significantly during the 1980s and 90s when the land was converted to cattle pastures and farmland.

Great Ape Trust Director of Conservation Dr. Benjamin B. Beck said that, given the severity of the deforestation and related problems in the Gishwati Conservation Park, 2008 efforts were concentrated on stopping the hemorrhage of the forest and preventing further loss of chimpanzees. In 2009, “we went on the offensive,” he said. The results: a 65 percent increase in the area of the forest, a 50 percent decrease in illegal use of the forest and, Beck said, “probably for the first time in decades, an increase in the size of the chimpanzee population with the birth of an infant.”

In addition to those gains, the Gishwati Area Conservation Program is providing employment for 19 Rwandans, many of whose families live around Gishwati.

“We are a small and agile organization, and have surprised everybody with our accomplishment over a short period, on a very modest budget,” Beck said. “We are pioneering new ‘last stand’ conservation approaches and have become a test bed, a conservation model within the model of national growth and reinvention that is Rwanda.

“Gishwati has become a ‘Forest of Hope’ rather than being the place ‘beyond hope’ that it was just two short years ago,” he continued. “In 2010, we will press the advantage and begin work on a five-fold expansion of the forest and a connection for the Gishwati chimpanzees to contact others.”

For Dr. Beck, the message is clear – Gishwati, if left to grow, will prevent landslides, reduce flooding and provide cleaner drinking water. If Gishwati is allowed to grow – so will the local economy. And the 14 chimpanzees that now live in this tiny pocket of Rwandan rain forest might just survive. But it needs your help, your expertise.

“We know that we can’t save chimpanzees without helping people, and we can’t help people without saving chimpanzees,” Beck said. “We’ve got the expertise and resources to cover the chimpanzee part, but we need partners to help provide desperately needed services for our human neighbors.”

Areas of expertise and assistance the Gishwati Area Conservation Park seeks:

• Expert advice for agricultural cooperatives regarding higher value crops, e.g. apples, nuts.
• Expert advice and assistance in providing wind or solar electrification for 1,000 local households and 15 schools.
• GIS-based landscape analysis and planning skills.
• Advice and assistance for installing composting toilets for schools and roadsides.
• Advice and assistance for installing rainwater collection systems for homes and schools.
• Advice, training, and equipment for emergency medical services in a remote and under-served location.
• Long-term assistance with local health care and education.

Those interested in offering their services to the Gishwati Area Conservation Program or simply learning more about the project should contact Great Ape Trust Communications Director Al Setka at asetka@greatapetrust.org.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Great Ape Trust, is a scientific research facility in Des Moines, Iowa, dedicated to understanding the origins and future of culture, language, tools and intelligence, and to the preservation of endangered great apes in their natural habitats. Announced in 2002 and receiving its first ape residents in 2004, Great Ape Trust is home to a colony of six bonobos involved in noninvasive interdisciplinary studies of their cognitive and communicative capabilities, and to six orangutans. To learn more about Great Ape Trust, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, go to www.GreatApeTrust.org.