Residents neighbouring the Volcanoes National Park have been hailed for their efforts in conservation of the park which is home to mountain gorillas.

The Governor of the Northern Province, Aimé Bosenibamwe, commended the residents during a preparatory meeting with various stakeholders ahead of the forthcoming baby gorilla naming ceremony locally named ‘Kwita Izina.’

The meeting brought together officials from Rwanda Development Board, tourism players and the communities around the park.

Officials said that the preparations for Kwita Izina ceremony are in high gear.

The annual gorilla naming ceremony will be held on September 5 in Kinigi, Musanze District.

It was moved from mid-year to September in line with the Northern Corridor tourism events calendar, according to officials from the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) Tourism and conservation department.

Governor Bosenibamwe called on residents to play their role to ensure a successful gorilla naming ceremony.

He said efforts put in fighting poaching had yielded fruits and called on residents to maintain conservation efforts of the park.

"I am thankful to Musanze residents and the community around for their efforts in park conservation. The current ‘Kwita Izina’ is happening because we have gorillas which are safe in the park and that is as a result of conservation efforts. We would have lost gorillas to Uganda and DR Congo forests but we still have them because we no longer have poachers,” said Bosenibamwe.

He observed that Musanze community and other areas neighbouring the park benefit a lot from various projects such as revenue sharing initiative, where five per cent of revenue generated from tourism is given back to the community.

More schools, roads and houses for vulnerable people were constructed while the communities are also supported in their respective cooperatives to get start-up kits.

Faustin Karasira, acting head of tourism department at RDB said the preparations will last for a week and over 60 tourism firms from across the world will have opportunities to visit other tourism attractions such as visiting the cultural palace, Kibeho religious site, Kivu Lake in Rubavu among other places.

He said there will also be business-to-business meetings with local companies and private investors to discuss how to strengthen cooperation.

"We shall also have a meeting in Kigali on September 3 on how to deal with forest conservation dubbed ‘Conversation on conservation,’ this is an international meeting that will bring together various tourism experts and other members of private sector to boost tourism,” he said.

The ‘Kwita Izina will’ also be preceded by inauguration of various infrastructure projects put up as part of developing communities around the park through revenue sharing.

Over Rwf300 million was used to support various activities, according to Karasira.

In Kinigi, a modern library will be inaugurated and a conference hall in Nyabihu District.

This will be the 11th edition of the annual ceremony. At least 24 baby gorillas will be named.The event is expected to attract over 400 visitors from across the world.

Gorilla naming ceremonies have boosted tourism development in the country as Rwanda last year received 1.3 million tourists who paid over $300 million.

A recent research by RDB and its conservation partners to establish ways to curb extinction of gorillas established that the primates’ chances of extinction were low despite their small numbers as they had adapted well over the years.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw