From Protection to Prosperity: Rwanda's Conservation Journey and the Rwanda Development Board-AWF Partnership
The African Wildlife Foundation explores the partnership between the Rwanda Development Board and local conservation groups to protect mountain gorillas. The initiative focuses on balancing habitat expansion with the economic needs of surrounding human communities.
Why it matters
This model of community-led conservation is increasingly viewed as a blueprint for sustainable development in biodiversity hotspots.
A view of Volcanoes National Park, found in northwestern Rwanda.
Eugene Mutangana on the partnership between the Rwanda Development Board and AWF, and why the next chapter of Rwanda’s conservation story depends on nature, people, and development thriving together.
Few protected areas face pressures like those in Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park, which has lost 53 per cent of its original area and is surrounded by one of the most densely populated regions in Africa. Yet the Virunga Massif mountain gorilla population has improved from an estimated 200–300 in the 1970s to over 600 today ( AWF Rwanda Program Report 2020–2025 ). That success now creates a new challenge. A growing gorilla population needs more habitat, while communities surrounding the park need broader economic opportunities. Rwanda’s answer, developed in a flagship programme with AWF as a governmental partner, links conservation to economic growth and climate resilience.
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