Great Ape Trust hosting Des Moines Register reporter in Rwanda
Sunday, September 13, 2009 at 12:06pm
As communications director for Great Ape Trust, I have the good fortune to spend three weeks this month in Africa in support of an important conservation initiative in Rwanda called the Gishwati Area Conservation Program (GACP).
Two years ago, Great Ape Trust and Earthpark Founder Ted Townsend and H.E. President Paul Kagame of Rwanda created this project at the Clinton Global Initiative. In conjunction with our Rwandan partners, we’re working to restore the depleted Gishwati Forest Reserve. This in turn will reduce flooding and soil erosion, improve water quality and create economic development opportunities for the region. (To learn more, go to www.GreatApeTrust.org and look under the Conservation section atop the homepage toolbar).
Community outreach programs to local villagers and school children are ongoing under the direction of Rwandan Madeleine Nyiratuza, the in-country program coordinator for GACP. Meantime, a scientific research field station has been established by Dr. Rebecca Chancellor to study 14 chimpanzees that are isolated in this pocket of rain forest. To improve the sustainability of that tiny population of chimpanzees, a long-range goal is to create a 30-mile forest corridor from Gishwati to Nyungwe National Park where hundreds of chimpanzees are located.
Dr. Benjamin Beck, conservation director at Great Ape Trust is the moving force behind the Gishwati Area Conservation program. He and I are in Rwanda this month meeting with the GACP teams to work on the 2010 action plan and to host Perry Beeman, an environmental writer for The Des Moines Register and Gannett News Service. Through a fellowship with the International Reporting Program at Johns Hopkins University, Beeman is working on a series of articles about GACP, eco-tourism opportunities in Rwanda and Iowans working on unique initiatives in this African nation.
When the opportunities present themselves, I’ll post updates and images from Rwanda. I look forward to your feedback. |
