Gorilla Journal 33, December 2006

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.

Mlima and Molongo Ndimbelimbe
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

Western gorilla overview

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