BALANCED TOURISM

By Brian T. Mullis (December 2023)

Balancing Tourism to Net Positive 

The travel and tourism industry faces increasing pressure to become sustainable and responsible. Destination leaders must determine how best to institutionalize sustainable tourism practices, as well as the potential risks and opportunities.  An increasing number of leading destinations are moving beyond sustaining the status quo to balanced tourism that increases the quality and value of each visitor and delivers a net positive benefit to people, places, and the ecosystems that they depend upon. This strategic approach ensures that host communities and biodiversity flourish by design.

Linking Tourism, Communities, and Conservation by Design

Many people know little about Rwanda aside from its recent history and perhaps that it is home to flourishing troops of mountain gorillas.  “Umuganda” means coming together, working with one another to achieve one goal to create a country that all Rwandans take pride in. There is a determination to unite as a whole and renew.  Though this process, Rwanda has taken a global leadership position over the last 20 years in using tourism as a development tool to create positive social, economic and conservation outcomes.

“We cannot turn the clock back, nor can we undo the harm caused, but we have the power to determine the future…” – President Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda 

Rwanda, known as the land of a thousand hills and mountains, is a densely populated country.  By 2005 myriad issues had compromised the country’s conservation efforts. These include the Rwandan Genocide Against the Tutsi in 1994, the resettlement in the aftermath, and the ensuing human wildlife conflict. Throughout this 15-year-period, there was so much pressure on Rwanda’s protected areas that most iconic wildlife, from lions to rhinos, disappeared and their habitat was significantly degraded, and the mountain gorilla conservation status changed from endangered to critically endangered.

Within the last 20 years there has been sea change due largely to the country’s highly effective green growth and climate resilience transformation agenda and progressive policy environment. This is exemplified by Rwanda’s high-value, low-volume tourism strategy that seeks to balance local community needs and conservation needs with the needs of the tourism sector.

National targets include improving ecosystem resilience and the contribution of biodiversity to carbon stocks by increasing forest cover to 30% and safeguarding 50% of natural ecosystems. To encourage Rwandans who were relocated from protected areas and those in the communities adjacent to protected areas to support these aims and help protect wildlife, the Government of Rwanda began investing 5% of tourism revenues in community projects in 2005. This rate was raised to 10% in 2017 when it became the highest revenue share in Africa. 

The tourism revenue is used to invest in health centers, schools, and other infrastructure prioritized by beneficiary communities.  Since 2005, 728 community projects worth USD 6.5 million have been funded. As of 2022, the totals increased to 881 community projects being funded at a cost of USD 7.9 million. This support has funded basic infrastructure (new schools, health facilities, roads and bridges, improved water supply, and local entrepreneurship) around Akagera, Nyungwe, Volcanoes, and Gishwati-Mukura National Parks, and this strategy has proven to be highly effective.  

Regenerating and Expanding Rwanda’s National Parks

Rwanda’s parks have been regenerated through public-private partnerships and collaborations.  Akagera National Park illustrates how a degraded ecosystem can be regenerated when nature is encouraged to come back. In 2009, after years of neglect and poaching, there was very little wildlife left in the park, park infrastructure had suffered from years of neglect, and the only game lodge was in disrepair. The Rwanda Development Board (RDB), a Rwandan governmental agency responsible for both conservation and tourism, shifted directions. A private public partnership was established with African Parks, a non-profit that rehabilitates and manages conservation areas that are at risk. The resultant joint for-profit business, Akagera Management Company, is responsible for restoring habitat, reintroducing key species, and removing invasive species.

Wildlife densities have rebounded in the last 12 years.  Many are back to the levels they were prior to the 1990s, and some populations have reached impressive growing and thriving populations. 40 adult lions, 25 rhinos, and 160 Grey Crowned Cranes have been restored back to the park environs. The net result: the Big Five (elephants, rhinos, leopards, lions, and buffalo) can now been seen throughout the park’s wetlands, woodlands, savannah, and lakes.  This, along with the fact that the park is an easy two-hour drive from Rwanda’s capital of Kigali, are among the top reasons why Akagera is now Rwanda’s most popular protected area.

Gishwati Forest shares a similar story of transformation. The government restored the whole of Gishwati-Mukura National Park over the course of four years. This includes 3558 hectares in the park and 962 hectares in the buffer zone. This reflects what is known as a landscape approach. It is designed to achieve economic development and conservation goals through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, increased forest cover, climate change adaptation efforts that combat land degradation, and provision of livelihood alternatives to the 337,782 people living within this biodiversity hotspot. Prior to restoration, the Gishwati Forest landscape was home to an industrial forestry and dairy project and later a refugee settlement followed by a privately managed chimpanzee sanctuary.  All of the hard work is quickly paying off. The Gishwati-Mukura landscape was designated as a UNESCO biosphere reserve in October 2020.

That same both, based on the success of Akagera, RDB entered into another private public partnership with Africa Parks for the management of Nyungwe National Park.  This 20-year commitment will secure the sustainability of the park by improving law enforcement, investing in and stimulating local enterprise, and optimizing the park’s exceptional potential for conservation-based tourism. Another one of Africa’s biodiversity hotspots, the park is home to 1,000 plants, 300 bird, and 90 mammal species. This includes a quarter of Africa’s primates 13 species such as chimpanzees and the extremely rare Hamlyn’s and L’Hoest’s monkeys. The efforts to regenerate around 6,000 hectares of the Park has created a substantive ROI. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) recently estimated the value of ecosystem services at US$4.8 billion.

This conservation success story continues within Volcanoes National Park. A recent census and survey of the mountain gorilla population in the Virunga Mountain landscape found an increase of 480 to 604 individuals over a five-year period. This is an astounding recovery given that 30 years ago there were just 250 mountain gorillas left in the Virunga Mountains. The Park is now part of the UNESCO Volcans Biosphere Reserve. This is yet another world-class example of the benefits of intensive conservation efforts undertaken by the Government of Rwanda in collaboration with regional and international non-profits like African Wildlife Foundation, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, and the Mountain Gorilla Conservation Fund. 

Rwanda’s four national parks cover about 10% of the country’s area. The Government of Rwanda has ambitions to increase the size and scope of its protected area system. There’s growing momentum around a landscape approach that is connecting its protected areas at a landscape level by creating biological corridors.  To help make this possibility a reality, a new law governing biological diversity was gazetted in November 2021. This law enables communities and the private sector to establish conservation areas. There is significant potential for scalability using innovative conservation finance mechanisms like green bonds, biodiversity credits, and debt swaps for nature to support this effort.

The regeneration of landscapes is already underway. During Rwanda’s economic crisis in 2003-2004, the Rugezi wetland had dried up due to human activities and climate change. This Ramsar site has now been rehabilitated. This led to the recovery of water levels, increased hydropower production, greater habitat for threatened species including the Grey Crowned Crane, and a boost for the country’s fishing sector. The ecosystems services are now valued at US$375 million by WCS.

Building Tourism Back Better

In February 2021, the RDB initiated the development of a National Tourism Recovery Plan to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and position the country to achieve its Vision 2050.  This plan reflects the Government of Rwanda’s vision around maximizing the tourism sector’s contribution to resident, community, visitor, and environmental well-being. The strategic and tactical recovery plan will further build on a solid foundation by serving as the basis for a longer-term strategy to rebuild the sector, guide planning into the future, and further strengthen Rwanda’s position as a leading sustainable destination in the global tourism marketplace.

In a country that has faced so much in recent history, Rwandans have moved forward into the future as one people united around conservation that enhances biodiversity and increases ecosystem services that benefit everyone from local communities to global citizens worldwide. This provides hope for all of us that both nature and communities can regenerate when tourism is designed to help living systems thrive. 

“Conservation, tourism, and community development go hand in hand. Each reinforces the other.” –President Kagame

About the Author

Brian T. Mullis served as the Tourism & Conservation Technical Advisor for the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) from November 2020–June 2023. Acting as a focal point between the IFC and senior decision-makers at the RDB, Brian provided strategic direction and leadership to achieve program results, support resource mobilization and protected area expansion, pilot new conservation finance mechanisms, and develop new tourism products and investment opportunities. He also supported the development of the Rwanda Tourism Recovery Strategy and market portfolio analysis and secure donor resources to help implement the strategy and address other organizational priorities such as improving the national statistics system, developing a national place brand, and securing sustainable investment.