Western Gorilla Tourism: Lessons Learned from Dzanga-Sangha
While innovative nature tourism ventures continue to surface all over
the world, governments with struggling economies and wildlife conservation
organizations with funding shortfalls have become increasingly eager to
find ways to boost tourism revenues. These additional revenues are sought
primarily to: 1) contribute to national treasuries, thus potentially placing
a long-term fiscal value on biodiversity, and 2) secure long-term funding
in order to maintain ongoing field conservation efforts. This strategy
becomes increasingly more urgent as host governments often concede to
profiting from acute and intense natural resource exploitation practices,
while at the same time these resources are, in most areas, in steady decline.
In Africa, high-profile, large and often rare animal species such as gorillas,
elephants and large carnivores are major draws for tourists. For example,
gorilla tourism has been very popular since the 1970s with eastern gorillas.
Since then, in times of peace, gorilla tourism in Rwanda, Uganda and D.
R. Congo has attracted large numbers of visitors, and this has generated
important revenue in addition to increasing national and international
awareness of the plight of the highly endangered mountain gorilla.
It is common knowledge among experts that gorilla tourism does not come
without risks. Disease transmission, socio-ecological disturbance and
increased vulnerability to poachers are among some of the risks for which
gorilla tourism programs may be responsible. Like other tourism programs,
there are further potential drawbacks: inflated economic expectations,
failure to recover financial and structural investment, unequal and unjust
revenue sharing policies, and a potentially negative cultural influence
on local societies.
The lack of long-term impact assessment studies certainly limits our ability
to evaluate the ratio of pros and cons of existing gorilla tourism programs.
Nevertheless, it is generally accepted that if today the mountain gorilla
population is still thriving, this is partly due to the international
reputation and consequent support generated from gorilla tourism. As a
result, national governments and international research and conservation
projects in Central Africa have tried to recreate the experience of mountain
gorilla tourism models with the most widespread and numerous of the gorilla
species: the western lowland gorilla.
Despite considerable efforts invested at numerous sites, attempts to habituate
western lowland gorillas, a prerequisite to ensuring consistent gorilla
viewing, have found limited success. Among the most important limiting
factors is the difficulty following gorillas' trails (especially because
of long daily-path lengths overlapping with neighboring groups and large
home ranges) and the poor visibility in dense lowland forests. Additionally,
the nature of previous encounters with humans (exposure to hunting, for
example) and finally, the individual character of each gorilla undergoing
habituation (receptive, aggressive or frightened), all play a role in
the eventual success or failure of habituation efforts.
The Primate Habituation Program at Dzanga-Sangha: its "raison
d'être"
Despite these seemingly insurmountable obstacles, efforts to develop gorilla
tourism in Central Africa continue to be made. In the southwest Central
African Republic, the World Wide Fund for Nature International (WWF)-backed
Primate Habituation Program is one such effort. The program was initiated
in 1997, under the auspices of the Dzanga-Sangha Project, a partnership
between the government and WWF since 1988, joined in 1994 by the German
Technical Cooperation (GTZ). Preserving biodiversity, while attempting
to regulate long-term use of the reserve's natural resources, is the shared
objective of these diverse partners. Thus, tourism may potentially be
viewed as a "rational" use of natural resources: if well managed,
the environment may generate economic benefits over the long-term, as
op-posed to the immediate gains acquired by intensive, short-term exploitation
practices.
In light of the fact that the success of any conservation project also
depends on its acceptance and support from the local and national community,
tourism can be used to help bridge the often tense relations between protected
area managers, local residents and national authorities, while simultaneously
increasing national and international awareness of the conservation issues
specific to participating countries, and thus potentially ensuring the
protection of their flagship species.
Supporting tourism at Dzanga-Sangha is consequently expected to generate
ancillary benefits in the form of: 1) enhanced political support and international
accountability for efforts to conserve endangered species, 2) reduced
poaching via persistent surveillance of the group's home range, and 3)
increased donor support.
Gorilla habituation and tourism operates from Bai Hokou camp, located
in the Dzanga-Ndoki National Park. From 1998 to 2006, three gorilla families
have been followed; two have been visited by tourists and one is presently
undergoing habituation. For the first two families, nearly 4 years of
habituation efforts were required before careful consideration was given
to open them to tourism. The level of habituation of the groups visited
by tourists allows for timed contacts at a distance of about 15 m. At
this distance visibility is often obstructed and, on average, gorillas
are in view during half the duration of the visit (resulting in one hour
of visual contact). Over 700 visitors observed the habituated groups at
Bai Hokou from late 2001 to 2006. Political unrest, culminating in a successful
"coup d'etat" in 2003, undoubtedly limited the number of international
tourists willing to visit the Central African Republic. By the end of
2006 over 200 tourists visited the gorillas at Bai Hokou indicating that
the demand for tracking will likely be higher during subsequent years.
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| The silverback Mlima; in the foreground BaAka
tracker Molongo Photos: Chloé Cipolletta |
Ndimbelimbe, a juvenile gorilla with the first habituated group at Bai Hokou: group Munye |
Lessons Learned
The habituation of western gorillas is a long, arduous process: Tracking
gorillas at Dzanga-Sangha is only possible with the aid of experienced
BaAka (hunter-gatherers). Despite the BaAka's superior forest skills,
successful tracking is difficult and even large gorilla groups may seemingly
"disappear" without leaving a trace. Even after hiring a few
exceptionally capable trackers, identifying and consistently staying with
a target gorilla group is a considerable challenge. Moreover, avoiding
dangerous encounters is difficult throughout the process. The dense structure
of the forest undergrowth increases the risks of surprising gorillas at
close range; thus, it is important to provide warning upon approach, always
letting the animals know your position (at Bai Hokou, as at nearby Mondika
gorilla camp, a non-threatening, tongue "clacking" sound is
used to announce our presence).
Health concerns are always present: The risk of disease transmission can
be minimized by developing sound guidelines which take into account the
health of gorillas and humans alike; but no matter how many precautions
one takes, prolonged proximity with humans presents a continual threat
to the gorillas' wellbeing.
However, habituating gorillas at Dzanga-Sangha has also meant providing
them with continuous surveillance from poachers. To ensure that the benefits
outweigh the potential risks, all regulations must be strictly adhered
to, and a long-term presence with the habituated groups assured.
Gorilla habituation is very costly: The investment required to embark
on a habituation program and the high costs of maintaining a large team
working in a remote area, where logistics are very challenging and complex,
has produced significant net financial losses for the gorilla tracking
program at Dzanga-Sangha. Bearing in mind that it takes years to habituate
a group, and considering that at any moment the group could disintegrate
along with its entire financial investment, immense financial risks are
involved.
And yet, profits may be easier to make than to distribute: The system
of revenue sharing in place at Dzanga-Sangha allocates 50% of its tourism
revenues to the project's running costs, 10% to a government fund designated
to support forest management efforts, and 40% to local NGOs. It has been
extremely difficult to implement an appropriate and fair use of these
NGO funds. This could be due partly to the non-cohesive social nature
of the main village of Bayanga. Built on logging and coffee exports from
several decades ago, Bayanga is a migrant community made up of people
from different regions and various tribes from throughout the country.
Consequently, self-interest has often prevailed over communal interest
and previous efforts to allow the community leaders to distribute the
communal returns have proven ineffective.
Limited viewing during gorilla tracking at Dzanga-Sangha versus mountain
gorilla viewing: The low level of visibility in the dense Dzanga-Sangha
forest means that even at a close distance it is sometimes impossible
to see the gorillas, never mind take a memorable photograph. Additionally,
to maximize the likelihood of seeing the gorillas, it is important to
limit the number of daily visitors. A maximum of 4 visitors is allowed
at Bai Hokou (as opposed to 8 for mountain gorilla sites), but even so
the 4th visitor has difficulty achieving rewarding views of the group.
However, many tourists have already seen mountain gorillas: There is a
high demand for gorilla viewing in general and for western lowland gorillas
this demand is increasing steadily. Many visitors have seen mountain gorillas
and now want to see their lowland counterparts. Additionally, as there
are so few mountain gorillas and their tiny habitat is much more fragile
and easily disturbed, the prospects for western gorilla tourism, despite
many obstacles, has potential.
Recommendations
The following recommendations have emerged from 9 years of habituation
and tourism experience specific to Dzanga-Sangha, and they may not be
applicable to other potential western gorilla habituation programs, as
site-specific differences may warrant different habituation practices.
In any case, they may help identify not only the potential advantages
associated with a successful gorilla tourism program, but also the potential
obstacles and difficulties faced throughout the entire process.
All aspects of a gorilla tourism program must be well planned: realistic
budget, availability of key personnel, assurance of long-term funding,
government and local support, judicial backing for law-enforcement efforts,
political stability, and so on. If these essentials cannot be met, it
might be better to inject available (but perhaps, insufficient) funds
already acquired for a habituation program into direct conservation activities
such as law enforcement, judicial reform, and conservation education.
To improve a tourism program and augment its revenue generating potential:
increase the number of habituated groups for tourism (if strict guidelines
are followed and long-term commitments can be met), continue to diversify
tourism activities in the area and, very importantly, market it appropriately
in order to avoid misleading potential tourists when comparing western
gorilla with mountain gorilla tourism. Western gorilla tourism must be
marketed for what it is: the observation of a different gorilla species
with a very different suite of behaviours, ranging patterns and habitats.
Our experience is that tourists who know what to expect (an amazing and
adventurous gorilla tracking experience as opposed to a fulfilling gorilla
viewing experience with mountain gorillas), usually come away with one
of the most rewarding experiences of their lives. Even though one rarely
achieves unobstructed views of silverbacks on the ground at 7 m, the prospect
of seeing a partially obscured 200 kg gorilla, 30 m high in a tree, is
equally if not more astonishing to many visitors.
A major obstacle to building a successful tourism program in western gorilla
territory is that, logistically, Central Africa is far behind the rest
of Africa - it is more expensive and less comfortable, and transportation
is much less reliable. For a western gorilla tourism program to be successful
over the long-term, there must be serious commitments from host nations
to improve these aspects of the tourism market. Without such dedication,
most habituation undertakings will not attract the anticipated visitors.
To increase local awareness and support for gorilla conservation efforts:
projects should incorporate a valid system of revenue sharing, promote
a system to limit immigration into the protected area complex (not only
by restricting immigration, but also by prioritizing the hiring of local
residents), and attempt to integrate wildlife conservation topics into
the local and national educational curricula. At Dzanga-Sangha, not unlike
elsewhere in Africa, students show an intense interest in learning more
about their environment and are very curious to know and understand why
it is biologically important to preserve and protect endangered animals
such as gorillas.
Carry out appropriate impact assessment studies:
- Monitor the health of both the gorillas under surveillance and the humans who work with them;
- Assess attitudes of the local population at different stages of gorilla habituation, to understand the evolution of why the population may support or object to tourism efforts;
- Continual data collection on the focal gorilla group in order to fully understand the impacts of habituation on their overall socio-ecology;
- Assess tourist evaluations to help the program evolve and thus, to better meet the needs of the tourists (while respecting the needs of the gorillas).
Secure long-term funding: Tourism alone may not provide the long-term
answers to funding shortfalls, but the endangered western gorillas are
a captivating species and their international profile helps generate the
funding needed to support long-term efforts. The Dzanga-Sangha Project
recently garnered over US$ 2 million to initiate a trust fund. These funds
were generated no doubt partly due to the prominence of the Primate Habituation
Program.
The international community has shown a keen interest in protecting wild
gorilla populations, and apes in general. African great apes are more
closely related to humans than to other primates. Their survival is in
the interest, if not a moral duty of, the global human community: the
costs and sacrifices linked to their protection should be supported not
only by countries that harbour them, but also those in a better financial
position to provide support for the apes' continued survival.
David Greer and Chloé Cipolletta
David Greer has been a WWF technical advisor for
the Dzanga-Sangha Protected area complex in the Central African Republic
where he has worked since 1998. His focus is on gorillas, tourism and
more recently, improving anti-poaching strategies. For several years prior
to that, he studied gorillas (Uganda and Rwanda) and chimpanzees (Tanzania).
Chloé Cipolletta has been a WWF technical advisor for the
Dzanga-Sangha Protected area complex in the Central African Republic where
she has worked since 1998. Her focus is on gorillas, tourism and conservation
education. Prior to that, she studied chimpanzees in the Ivory Coast.
Suggested reading
Homsy, J. (1999) Ape Tourism and Human Diseases: How close should we get?
A critical review of the rules and regulations governing park management
and tourism for the wild mountain gorilla Gorilla gorilla beringei. International
Gorilla Conservation Programme.
http://www.mountaingorillas/our_work/our_work.asp