Locals upbeat about upcoming Kwita Izina

People living in the vicinity of the Volcanoes National Park have said they are excited about the upcoming gorilla naming ceremony, commonly known as Kwita Izina, saying gorillas have changed their lives. The volcanoes, which traverse three countries of Rwanda, Uganda and DR Congo, are the habitat of the mountain gorillas, considered an endangered species. “Every year, as the naming ceremony approaches, we feel like we have new family members joining us. Gorillas have boosted our businesses around and everyone in these communities directly or indirectly benefit from them,” said Collette Mukeshimana, a resident of Nyange Sector in Musanze District.She said business is even more booming during the naming period because of the large number of people who flock the place. “Volcanoes are home to gorillas and gorillas are our neighbours; courtesy of the gorillas, we have got key infrastructure like electricity, roads and water,” said Theoneste Niyonzima a resident of Kinigi Sector. Some residents, who are Seventh Day Adventists, say they are “saddened” because they do not get time to attend since the naming ceremony takes place on Saturday, their day of worship. Last year, Virunga National Park recorded 28,448 tourists, 26,904 of whom visited mountain gorillas. And to ensure collective efforts to protect the park, government introduced a programme where proceeds from the park are shared with the communities around. Since 2005, when the revenue sharing programme started, more than Rwf500m has been provided by the Rwanda Development Board to finance various projects in the park. The ninth naming ceremony will be conducted under the theme: ‘Celebrating Nature, Empowering Communities’ with emphasis on the role that the community plays in conservation. Officials urged local leaders to ensure that the ceremony is well-organised so that many people from sectors neighbouring the park attend. “As our theme this year is to empower communities, we can’t empower them without having them involved in events like the naming ceremony,” said Northern Province Governor Aime Bosenibamwe. Officials also discussed how to ease transport so that elderly people and others who are unable to get to the naming site can be transported to the venue. “Transport has become a problem for people who come from far. RDB should help to ensure many people attend,” Burera mayor Samuel Sembagare said. “The issue of transport will be discussed, but we can’t decide it now. People should try and fend for themselves so we can only help those who are unable to do so,” said Rica Rwigamba, the head of Tourism at RDB.