Selected through a competition that was announced by RDB during this year\u2019s Liberation Day celebrations, the teenagers left Kigali on Saturday afternoon to participate in an early morning trek on Sunday.<\/p>\n
RDB\u2019s Chief Tourism Officer, Belise Kariza, urged them to be the next generation of conservationists in the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to impart the importance of conservation among the youth in order for them to carry on the mountain gorilla conservation efforts that have seen the number of mountain gorillas\u2019 increase. Through gorilla conservation and tourism, we are directly benefiting from these wonderful species. Over the last nine years, revenues from mountain gorilla conservation and the resulting tourism have brought US$107 million to the national coffers,\u201d Kariza noted.<\/p>\n
Following the trek, Lelia Gasaro, one of the young trekkers, said that she found the trip educative.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis trip is good because it helps us to see for ourselves what we learn in school and what the country is doing to conserve the gorillas. The information I received from the guides was good because I knew some of it and also learnt new details that I will share with my friends,\u201d Gasaro noted.<\/p>\n
From 15th-16th December, the second group of 15-year olds will travel to Volcanoes National Park courtesy of RDB\u2019s Liberation Day giveaway.<\/p>\n
According to a recent census by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), conservation efforts have resulted in an increase in the number of mountain gorillas in the Virunga Massif region to more than 1000 gorillas, from 242 in 1981 and 480 in 2010.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RDB (Rwanda Development Board) yesterday gave 7 local 15-year-olds, who were accompanied by their guardians, a unique gorilla trekking experience in Volcanoes National Park as part of its efforts to instill a culture of conservation in Rwandan youth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-38594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38594\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38594"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=38594"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=38594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}