Tourism in Uganda boosts conservation of endangered mountain gorillas

News of a sick or injured mountain gorilla can worry local residents in this mountainous area that’s home to the endangered species. That’s partly because most of the gorillas have been given names, allowing rangers and others to humanise the animal’s suffering.

But widespread interest in protecting mountain gorillas also comes from the economic benefits of tourism that have turned poachers into conservationists, married women into porters and rangers into eloquent spokespeople for



the great apes.

“If we know there is a gorilla that is sick, you see everyone is concerned. ‘Why? Why is the gorilla sick? It’s suffering from what?’” said Joyleen Tugume, a ranger-guide in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. “Even the community people. Everyone is touched.”

Tugume said poaching in the park is increasingly rare since “we are actually all working together to make sure conservation goes well, because we are all benefitting.”