A report on the State of the Wildlife Economy in Rwanda has disclosed that the value of Nyungwe National Park is estimated at $4.8 billion.

The overall aim of the report is to highlight the potential of the wildlife economy and encourage more public and private investments in protected and conserved areas to improve biodiversity outcomes and support economic development.

Success, it says, would include turning conservation into a growth industry, attracting young inspired leaders, increasing private sector investment in wildlife resources and related businesses as well as involving communities in nature and wildlife related projects.

It also aims to ensure that governments see wildlife as a key strategic asset and, therefore, create an enabling environment for the wildlife economy and the conservation of related wildlife resources.

"The ecosystem services provided by Nyungwe are estimated at US$4.8 billion,” reads the report.

Nyungwe is one of the oldest rainforests in Africa, covering 1,019 km2 of dense forests, bamboo-covered slopes, grasslands and wetlands and it is the largest expanse of forest remaining in Rwanda

The park feeds two of the world’s largest rivers, the Congo and the Nile, and provides 70 per cent of the country’s freshwater.

The park is also a regional biodiversity hotspot, supporting 1,068 recorded plant species, 322 bird species, 75 known mammal species and 13 different primate species.

Nyungwe Park also features a swamp with a variety of species.

Kamiranzovu swamp is the largest swamp located in Nyungwe National forest and it is the mother of the great waterfall of Nyungwe national park called " Kamiranzovu waterfall”.

The water flows about 3km to form a waterfall which flows through Lake Kivu, Congo River, Tanganyika until the Atlantic Ocean.

Despite the valuable resources, Nyungwe is exposed to a variety of threats including poaching, illegal mining, and encroachment from agriculture which have together endangered the integrity of its flora and fauna.

In October 2020, RDB and African Parks signed a new 20-year partnership agreement for Nyungwe National Park,to ensure sustainable management of the park, promoting conservation and providing benefits to local people.

The report commends Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) initiative that is also aimed to protect the park.

Payments for Ecosystem Services is the name given to a variety of arrangements through which the beneficiaries of environmental services, from watershed protection and forest conservation to carbon sequestration and landscape beauty, reward those whose lands provide these services with subsidies or market payments.

 A PES two-year pilot research project reliant on EU funds and known as the ReDirect project has been implemented in Nyungwe, it shows.

In the Rwanda ReDirect project, for example, valuation was used to determine payment levels based on estimated opportunity and conservation costs, by calculating average forest-based income for households living near Nyungwe National Park.

In addition to household-level payments, a certain percentage of funds are paid directly to the villages or cells commune to be spent on community activities.

There are opportunities for Rwanda to generate significant revenue and to create employment through PES, it says.

Several institutions led by the Rwanda National Commission on UNESCO have embarked on a proposal to have Nyungwe National Park added to the world heritage list.

Value of other protected areas

The State of the Wildlife Economy indicates that total monetary value of Rugezi wetlands is $374.3 million.

The total economic value of Mukura Landscape was estimated at $1.4 million per year.

The monetary benefits from the Mukura landscape translate into a value of $ 803 per hectare per year, which is comparable to the most productive forest landscapes.

"The total value of the Akagera Wetland Complex includes a stock value (carbon storage) of $1.1 billion and an annual flow value of $11.9 million,” the report shows.