JOB CREATION
PIVOTING POACHERS INTO PROTECTORS
IBY'IWACU CULTURAL VILLAGE, RWANDA
Photo: Emmy Shingiro
On your next wildlife adventure, immerse yourself in the local culture for a richer, more meaningful experience and to boost the communities you visit. Rwanda shows how tourism can lift residents out of poverty, contribute to saving endangered species and offer visitors an authentic glimpse of Rwandan culture.
What's
changing
Involving local communities in tourism can lift them out of poverty, improve their living conditions and reduce adverse effects on the health and sustainability of their surroundings.
What's already
possible
In Rwanda, the Iby’Iwacu Cultural Village (sometimes referred to as the Gorilla Guardians Village) has successfully transformed poachers into protectors of gorillas. The initiative provides economic support to poaching families and links their well-being to that of the gorillas and their habitats.
Seizing
the opportunity
In the village outside Volcanoes National Park, some community members turned to poaching to support their families. Recognizing the connection between poaching and poverty after visiting Iby’Iwacu village, Rwandan Edwin Sabuhoro developed a plan to use tourism to shift poachers to conservation. At the same time, seed money enabled residents to start small farms and reduce their food insecurity. No longer poaching, residents of Iby’Iwacu Cultural Village focus on cultural programs for visitors that include sampling indigenous food, making banana beer, watching traditional dances, participating in traditional crafts and learning about crops from locals. The income individuals earn from tourism activities supplements farming income, and many have been hired as guides in the park or in other hospitality-related roles.
Standout
tactic
Translators guide visitors through the village and teach them etiquette to minimize cultural misunderstandings that could turn off the community to tourism. Without stopping by the village, many visitors on gorilla treks would have missed the chance to experience Rwandan culture on a deeper level.
How
it helps
Gorilla populations in the area are increasing, and as of 2019, gorillas are now the world’s only species of great apes experiencing population growth. The population growth has brought more visitors to Iby’Iwacu Cultural Village, and incomes rise as the population increases. Within the first nine months of the program, five of seven community groups had stopped poaching and were successfully changing to farming and other means of supporting themselves.
Diving
deeper
How can programs like this address deeper, systemic issues of poverty and poaching while tourism mitigates these issues in the short-term?
Increasing
impact
Embracing community ownership and principles of community capitalism could strengthen the tourism experience and ensure that everyone involved shares in the benefits equitably.
Traveling
better
Travel is inherently carbon intensive. Whether you are taking a mini-break or an annual vacation, consider ways to minimize your impact by staying longer in one place, reconsidering how you travel to the destination, and supporting businesses that are working to make their community and the world a better place.
