Gorillas in the midst
gorillas are the latest victim of political and ethnic conflicts, that have engulfed eastern Africa. About 300 gorillas live in Bwindi and 320 in the forests that run through Uganda, Rwanda and Congo.
In a strange relationship, the survival of the local people depends on the revenue from tourism that these gorillas attract. The gorillas' survival, in turn, depends on the goodwill of the local people, who have agreed not to cut trees or clear land for farming in exchange for a share of the tourism money. The fact that tourism itself depends on peace, which is nowhere in sight, is another matter.
Eight foreign tourists and a game warden were recently killed in the Bwindi National Park. Its immediate repercussion was a sharp fall in tourism. Abercrombie and Kent, one of the largest tour companies of Uganda, reported that three-quarters of its 1999 bookings had been cancelled.
So if the tourists stop coming, will the local people be forced to destroy the gorilla habitat to earn their livelihood? "They are important when they bring in tourists,' says Ignatius Byamugyisha, a villager. "If not, they are not. If the tourists don't come, we will try our luck in the forest. Before this, we were good timber-cutters,' he says.
Innocent gorillas, it seems, are also figuring in the casualties that have plagued the countries of the African Great Lakes