Amahoro Tours: A stakeholder cooperation benefitting mountain gorillas and the community

Amahoro Tours has become a known brand bringing nature-interested tourists from all over the world into the mountain gorilla national parks of all the three nations of the Virunga region and thereby supporting the parks financially. The company has a focus on working closely with communities and educates and involves local people in tourism and conservation around the Virunga mountain national parks, both in Rwanda and DRC. Amahoro Tours thinks that working with organizations such as LT&C enhances capacity building. We have trained some local people who are now working as guides and conservation protectors in the region.

With events such as the Red Rocks cultural tourism week, in conjunction with the gorilla naming ceremony and a recent workshop we hosted and organized together with LT&C (see Musanze LT&C Memorandum), Amahoro Tours is actively supporting the trilateral cooperation in the entire region promoting networking within the mission of linking tourism and conservation.

Amahoro Tours also involves itself in other (potential) LT&C-Examples by providing its experience and learning from others. Participation in the 2016 Saadani national park workshop is an example of this, where the company also offered its direct support to a local community project. In DRC, Amahoro Tours supports a coffee farming project and the organisation leading it, which is important to secure sustainable development in the buffer zone of the Virunga national park by providing benefits for the local people and thereby increasing their willingness to support the park.

Yes, we have a plan of increasing cooperation with other organization and LT&C-tour operators in order to increase our visibility, not only in the region but around the world. Through this, we get to learn from one another. We have a long way to go, but I am proud of the steps we have taken, and also of being a part of this journey.

I would like to extend my experience to Uganda and Congo in promoting conservation supporting tourism around the Virunga mountain national parks. All we need is a good cooperation and network platform for more community development through tourism and conservation.