I am off to Rwanda to visit the town of Musanze at the base of the Volcanoes National Park, home to half of the worlds remaining 700+ Mountain Gorillas. This trip unfortunately will not bring me to the gorillas, but I will be spending time with our friends at Art of Conservation.
Art of Conservation works in poor rural communities surrounding Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda, teaching schoolchildren about the importance of maintaining a healthy environment for both people and animals and instilling them with an understanding and respect for themselves, their peers, and the natural world.
The Houston Zoo believes that the health of wildlife is directly linked to the health of the people with whom they share their habitat, as well as the health of the people living in the communities surrounding those habitats. Education and community health initiatives are equally important as wildlife research efforts. For a program to be successful, the three pieces cannot be separated from one another.
Long term education programs have to be put in place with the aim of changing the attitudes of local people to the value of wildlife. If we want to ensure the survival of wildlife and wild-places in the future we also have to address our conservation effort to the future generation – the children. At the same time, we have to help these communities find sustainable resources and economic solutions for those resources.
