Volcanoes National Park Rangers Equipped with Patrol Techniques to Improve Mountain Gorilla Protection
Blog | 3/12/21
The International Gorilla Conservation Programme has trained over 65 Rangers and Trackers from Volcanoes National Park on patrol techniques to improve the Endangered Mountain gorillas’ monitoring and effectively enhance reporting on illegal activities like poaching and bamboo cutting, that happen in the park. Volcanoes National Park is one of the last remaining habitats of mountain gorillas and patrols have proven to be one of the main approaches to protect the mountain gorillas, their habitat and other biodiversity in this protected area.
Speaking about the importance of the training, Jean Damascene Hakizimana, Volcanoes National Park Acting Research and Monitoring Warden said, “This training is timely and necessary because, daily Ranger based monitoring and patrol is an effective tool that has helped the park over the years to get data on mountain gorilla health, illegal activity status and in the long run informed the decisions to conserve better the endangered mountain gorillas.”
Rangers were trained on improved patrol techniques using harmonized ranger-based monitoring in data collection, types of patrols and their efficiency, gorilla vocalization and how to know the gorillas are in danger as well as improved reporting systems and effective use of technology (by capturing the right Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates. Participants reported improved knowledge that will help address their day-to-day challenges at work.
“Before this training, reporting was really challenging to me, I couldn’t translate the collected data well and as a result I would make late inaccurate reports. This is going to change,” said Bernard Rukebesha, a Ranger.
Rangers as well took the opportunity to highlight their challenges which include lack of field equipment like raincoats, lack of motivation initiatives for team leaders and lack of refreshment like water while in the field.
