Focus: ORTPN introduces bird watching in Rwanda

On October 20 ORTPN (The Rwanda National Office of Tourism), with its partners launched bird watching as an alternative attraction to high end tourists who made tourism the third highest foreign income earner for Rwanda at US 34million dollars by 2006 estimates. “This is one way of attracting specialist visitors to Rwanda to achieve the targeted 70,000 tourists by 2010. Our aim is to make tourists stay longer in Rwanda, while we exploit Rwanda’s untapped wealth,” said Rosette Rugambwa, the Director of ORTPN. For a long time, Bird Watching has been a favourite pastime activity for tourists who visit the East African region. A typical bird watching trip to Uganda and Rwanda takes a minimum of seven days at a cost of US$3900. In the past bird watchers paid for a single trip which combined Rwanda and Uganda; but tourists spent a big part of their time and money on bird watching in Uganda. There are over 1500 bird species in East Africa, which is 15 percent of the total world bird population according Rosette Rugambwa. Over 728 are found in Rwanda, the picturesque spots that offer unique and incomparable species than any other in the region as an added advantage for tourists. Rwanda has a high concentration of birds both migratory and endemic. Yet with 728 different species, the tourism sector had not introduced birding as a possible catch to tourists on top of gorillas and other authentic Rwanda attractions. The country’s amazing wealth of bird species is partly due to the moderate tropical climate. Nyungwe forest and Akagera National park are some of the areas that ORTPN with her partners want to utilize as watching spots where tourists are expected to spend more days involved in as many activities as time can afford. Akagera National park alone has 525 species among which 345 are nesting and many more migrant bird species are attracted by the seasonal fluctuations of regional weather. “Bird watchers who come to East Africa spend US$3900 for a trip to Uganda and Rwanda, and yet these tourists spend only a quarter of their time in Rwanda. We need to sell ourselves as a tourist destination for bird lovers,” said Rosette Rugambwa. Vincent Karega, said Rwandan culture is rich with gifts of nature. “The problem we had in the history of this country was not lack of resources but lack of research. Now the government has laid out all the prerequisites for our people to be creative and exploit our gifts of nature,” he said adding that “We need to search and discover the wealth that lies within our set culture and nature and turn our country into the heart of Africa - the gem.” A senior official in one of Rwanda’s emerging tourist travel agencies says that researchers and bird lovers have proclaimed that bird watching is an immensely satisfying activity. This is because African culture is deeply embedded in nature. Watching and listening to the humming sound of birds inspires even the hardest of hearts. Birds have inspired great inventors and philosophers.” Aware of concerns that local tourists might not consider bird watching as an exciting activity worth undertaking, Rugambwa said, “Rwandans don’t necessarily have to watch the birds, we have different roles. Rwandans have the responsibilities of receiving the visitors in a hospitable manner and create more products for sale; that way our visitors are happy for the time well spent and we can earn and develop our country.” As a new adventure for the tourism industry in the country Bird watching will face many challenges but UK, who is Rwanda’s major development partner, is committed to see ORTPN achieve high returns from the industry and boost Rwanda’s economy. The British ambassador, a bird watcher himself, said his government is happy with Rwanda’s endeavour to spur growth and stability. “There should not be any illusions; tourists come to Rwanda to see the gorillas and golden monkeys because these two creatures are only unique to Rwanda. But people also spend lots of money to come to East Africa to see the shoebill, only a small fraction of their money comes to Rwanda so we need to attract these tourists here,” said the British ambassador. The ambassador also made an appeal to tourism stake holders; “We need to build stands and water points where birds can come to attract other birds in the evening, this bird watching will become an important attraction on top of the golden monkey and gorillas.” He said by developing and sustaining bird watching, ORTPN will have something for the specialists who will make tourists spend longer time in Rwanda, which will increase the country’s income from the industry. There are various places like forest and wildlife reserves, rain forests, rivers and other areas where you will have a breath-taking view of these beautiful gifts of nature. Visitors can find Rwenzori Turaco, Albertine owlet, purple breathed sunbird, the Shelley’s crimson wing, the archer’s robin chat, the dusky crimson wing and red-collared tain babbler in the Nyungwe forest. Among the high profile guests that attended Rwanda’s first Bird watching tour in Akagera National park was the Eastern Province Governor Theoneste Mutsindashyaka, Jeremy Mclaren the British Ambassador to Rwanda and Vincent Karega, the Minister of state for Trade and investments. Ends