Wobbling down what seems like an endless descent from the lofty perches of Nkuringo Ridge, the village of Kahurire in the patchwork of green hollows below looks tiny no matter how close we get to it, like a scattering of child’s playhouses neatly arranged in neighbor friendly concentric circles.  The ragged leaves of the banana [...]

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Hi everybody. This is Media, the Programme Officer for IGCP Rwanda. It’s taken me a bit of time, but I wanted to write about the recent fire in Volcanoes National Park and all of the heroic efforts of people working in and living near the Park to put it out. Fortunately, the mountain gorillas IGCP [...]

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Wellard here again.  In my last post I wrote about my first visit back to the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in my capacity as Enterprise Officer for the IGCP Congo Program after the long civil conflict there. Today I want to share with you a more celebratory and team-oriented reflection from our Rwanda Program: [...]

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Jamie – the IGCP Communications Officer – here again. I am recently back from Kwita Izina – Rwanda’s mountain gorilla naming ceremony. Kwita Izina is held every year to name all the baby gorillas that were born in Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda in the past twelve months. This year eighteen babies were named, and [...]

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Hi, this is Wellard again –writing to tell you about the rest of our visit to DRC, a journey of mixed emotions. After leaving the beekeepers, we traveled another 12 kilometres of bumpy road to the T-junction to the local army base and the National Park authorities’ offices, Rumangabo Station. There we saw an amazing [...]

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Hi, everybody! I am Wellard Makambo. Makambo means “issues or words” in my mother tongue. Fortunately I don’t have many issues in my life at the moment. I am proud to be the IGCP Enterprise Officer for our Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Programme. I am in charge of developing alternatives for communities bordering Virunga [...]

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This is Eugene Rutagarama, Director of IGCP. I have worked for gorillas for quite a while, but visiting them never ceases to be a fascinating experience. Last Thursday, together with some colleagues, I had another amazing gorilla visit, checking in with the Humba group in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the Mikeno sector of [...]

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My name is Alister Mungai and I am the Programme Assistant for IGCP. After ICCN (the Congo government’s national park and nature conservation authority) officially reopened the Mikeno sector of Virunga National Park for tourism on May 1st, IGCP was invited to train the rangers who would be involved in the handling of visitors. As rangers [...]

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Bonjour Everyone!  This is Augustin.  I work for IGCP’s Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Program and also serve as the IGCP Science Officer.  Nowadays, there is a growing consensus in the scientific community that climate change is occurring and is one of many possible causes of biodiversity loss.  Changes in climate can impact biodiversity either [...]

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I wanted to share something with you that gives me hope. Sometimes, we get so wrapped up in our work and our own daily struggles and challenges that we forget what is really important. Then, something makes us pause, and we realize why we are doing what we do. The other day was a typical [...]

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