Rwanda's First National Conservation Park Created

In Rwanda, the Gishwati Forest Reserve will be the site of the Rwanda National Conservation Park. The park is a joint project that saw The Rwandan government, Great Ape Trust of Iowa and Earthpark working together to set into motion one of Africa’s most ambitious forest restoration and ecological research efforts ever. The press release states that The selection of Gishwati as the location for Rwanda’s first national conservation park comes less than three months after the project was unveiled at the Clinton Global Initiative by Rwanda President H.E. Paul Kagame and Ted Townsend, founder of Great Ape Trust and Earthpark. The Gishwati Forest is located in the Western Province of Rwanda and had been deforested in the 1980s for agricultural growth. The deforestation continued throughout the 1990s when people were being resettled following the civil war and the genocide. “This was the first step in what will be a very long but powerful journey. What we’ve learned about Gishwati has given us an even bigger vision of what can be accomplished in Rwanda,” Townsend said. “It’s a signature moment to participate in this conservation effort that is new and beyond anything attempted before.” Gishwati was once the second-largest indigenous forest in Rwanda and covered 100,000 hectares or 250,000 acres in the early 1900s. By the late 1980s, Gishwati was about one-fourth its original size. The resettlement which took place after the 1994 genocide further reduced the forest to about 62 km (600 hectares or 1,500 acres). The reforestation efforts conducted over the past several years have increased Gishwati’s forest to approximately 102 km (1,000 hectares or 2,500 acres).