For every $1 million (approximately Rwf1.3 billion) invested in ‘nature-based tourism’ activities inRwanda, an additional 1,328 new jobs are directly and indirectly created, a recently released report by the World Bank shows.

According to the report, nature-based tourism – a type of tourism that involves traveling to natural areas in a responsible way – is estimated to account for 80 per cent of the visitors entering Rwanda for leisure or conferences.

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The report, launched last week, highlights the country’s economic achievements and presents recommendations to sustain growth in alignment with the second National Strategy for Transformation (NST-2).

The World Bank indicates that revenue from these nature-based tourism activities in Rwanda’s three main national parks increased from approximately $8.20 million in 2008 to $27.3 million in 2022.

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Rwanda’s key nature-based assets for nature-based tourism include tourism destinations such as the Volcanoes National Park (VNP), which is home to the mountain gorillas, Akagera and Nyungwe national parks with wildlife including the ‘Big Five’ comprising lions, leopards, elephants, black rhinos and buffalos, forests reserves, and sites of scenic and scientific importance.

Available statistics from Rwanda Development Board (RDB) indicate that the number of visitors to Rwanda’s three national parks (Volcanoes National Park, Akagera National Park, and Nyungwe National Park ) rose from 43,083 in 2008 to 107,976 in 2022.

Scaling beyond parks

Gregory Bakunzi, the founder of Red Rocks, an initiative working with communities around theVolcanoes National Park to promote nature and community based tourism, said that other nature reserves apart from national parks should be developed to attract more tourists and create more jobs.

He cited Mukungwa River and its biodiversity where they take tourists for nature experience.

Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA) in collaboration with Musanze District are set to establish the Mukungwa Urban Eco-tourism Park along Mukungwa River.

"Nature and community based tourism contributes a lot to the economy. Natured based tourism should be linked with cultural tourism. Thanks to this, we record about 3,000 visitors per year,” Bakunzi said.

"We take tourists for nature walk to experience species. They visit, for instance, Buhanga forest and join mountain hiking, fishing experience, and caves in Musanze, among other nature reserves,” he added.

Buhanga forest holds significance as a sacred site where Rwandan kings, including the first king, Gihanga, would undergo ritual bathing before coronation.

"These visitors spend money in hotels, on food and souvenirs they buy. They pay the guide. This means jobs have been created,” he said, a fact that is consistent with the report.

The World Bank’s analysis indicates that nature-based tourism tends to provide higher-quality jobs than many other sectors, as the accommodation and food sector has a larger share of formal jobs and of women workers than in the rest of the economy.

Tourism generates substantial economic activity and spillovers to other sectors. Hotels and other types of accommodation generate economic activity through backward and forward linkages to agriculture, fishing, and manufacturing, the report shows.

According to the World Bank, tourist services and tourists themselves, through personal spending in and outside the tourist accommodation, increase the demand for transport, banking, insurance, telecommunications, medical, security and retail services, arts, entertainment, and recreation as well as for handicrafts and other souvenirs.

Gervais Hafashimana, a local investor in tourism services around Lake Ruhondo, made the case for nature based tourism in lakes such as twin lakes.

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Hafashimana recommends canopy walkways over Lake Ruhondo and Burera to showcase their biodiversity and enhance tourism.

He also plans to introduce a movable boat with a restaurant and bar on Lake Ruhondo, alongside Safari vehicle tours to destinations like Volcanoes and Akagera National Parks.

Visitors can also have a cultural experience while enjoying the natural beauty of the lakes.

The overall tourism sector has been a major source of quality jobs in the formal sector in Rwanda.

Boosting nature-based tourism

Using the Rwanda Biodiversity Financial Needs Assessment (BFNA) as a proxy for the financing needs for improving habitat for nature based tourism, an analysis indicated that financing costs for implementing the strategy for nature conservation are estimated at between $97.5 million and $ 107.7 million up to 2030.

"Private investment, as provided for through new legislation, could potentially assist with diversifying nature based tourism offerings,” the report recommends.

For nature-based tourism to succeed, the report suggests that benefits must be shared with local communities and current efforts should be intensified given that poverty in communities bordering ‘protected areas’ encourages poaching, other illegal activities, and the exploitation of forests out of the need to survive.

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The government has a programme to share 10 per cent of tourism revenues with poor and disadvantaged groups close to ‘protected areas,’ while 5 per cent of tourism revenues is devoted to a fund to prevent human-wildlife conflict.

"Revenue-sharing schemes with communities and local landowners could be expanded, and funds from the Tourism Revenue Sharing Program (TRSP) should be devoted to responding to the needs of communities surrounding Protected Areas, with provision for local management of these resources,” World Bank recommends.

It says it will be important to rely on diversified sources of financing for both the public and private sector, including debt and non-debt instruments, and to establish the policy framework required to encourage investment in nature based tourism.

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The report shows that encouraging more private investment in natured based tourism through public-private partnerships would boost economic productivity if only public resources were relied on.

The private sector, it says, can be involved in nature based tourism activities most efficiently through outsourcing investment and provision of management services in state-owned protected areas, or licensing commercial activities adjacent to these areas.