Keiko Mori, the representative of this organization, has been filming gorillas in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park since 2008. Through this activity, she has built a relationship of trust with the Rwanda Development Board of the Rwanda Government and Volcanoes National Park, and has sought ways to help those who are striving to protect gorillas on a daily basis. All of the local projects we are about to undertake are the result of discussions with RDB park wardens, and are the ones most needed in the field right now.

1. Strengthening and supporting the gorilla monitoring system

In order to properly protect gorillas, it is important to keep track of the gorilla situation, but the system is still lacking adequate equipment and skills in the volcanic national park and needs support. We will support from both the hardware aspect of supplying equipment and educational aspect of changing people’s awareness.

GORILLA FAMILY CARD
This is an ongoing initiative that started ten years ago. We have created a “family card” that includes the names and photos of each individual with the 21 gorilla groups inside the Volcanoes national park. Each of the hundreds of gorillas has been given a name and each individual’s name is displayed along with their photograph on the cards, according to the group that they belong to. The card also includes the blood relationships between individuals on a single card. We update the information on the cards twice a year.The park trackers job is to observe the behavior of the gorillas and identify and monitor individuals within the various groups and record their relationships. The cards are used not only when the park trackers do this kind of daily research, but also when the park guides explain to tourists in advance about the gorilla population they are going to observe. 

2. Providing alcohol disinfectant gel for infection prevention

As gorillas are great apes, they can be infected by common human infections, such as Covid-19, Ebola and so on, this is known as reverse zoonosis, where pathogens jump from people to animals, and special preventative measures need to be taken to prevent this. About 1,000 gorillas live in the Virunga volcanic belt, which spans three countries including Rwanda. If any infection were to spread to this population, the effects could be devastating.

 3. Concerning awareness-raising activities in the national park expansion zone in Rwanda

The national park expansion area is a part of a larger area that was at one time part of the national park, that has been used for the past fifty years to house part of the human population of Rwanda. There is now a plan to relocate the people who live in the expansion zone to other suitable areas in Rwanda so that it can be returned to the national park. It is envisaged that this relocation will take place over twenty or more years so that a peaceful and orderly transition can be realized.

For the children that will grow up within the expansion zone during that time, it is important to educate them about the structure of the forest ecosystem and the role of the gorillas within it, so that the best environment can be nurtured and maintained to guarantee the gorillas’ survival and encourage their expansion.

It is hoped that this expansion project will benefit not only the gorillas but also ensure the survival of one of the great natural sites in the country for the benefit of the nation as a whole. The Humming of Gorillas NPO plan to be part of that education of the children by teaching them about the behavior of the gorillas.

4. Uploading videos of interviews with important scientists in the field of gorillas onto YouTube

We hope to encourage interest in gorillas amongst the general public by uploading videos of interviews with leading gorilla and other great ape scientists and mixing in various photographic images taken by Keiko Mori from Rwanda.