Beyond ‘voluntourism’: Can you help Rwanda with sustainable tourism and community development?

Drip­ping with sus­tain­able tour­ism and com­munity devel­op­ment poten­tial, the Vol­ca­noes Nation­al Park in north­west­ern Rwanda, along with the Vir­unga Park in the Demo­crat­ic Repub­lic of Congo (DRC) and the Bwindi Park in Uganda, make up the fam­ous Vir­unga Mas­sif whose eight vol­ca­noes are the only hab­it­at in the world for moun­tain gorillas.

In Rwanda, Vol­ca­noes Nation­al Park will be expan­ded. Over the next five years, the 13,000-hectare pro­tec­ted area will gain an addi­tion­al 10,000 hec­tares. Some 2,860 hec­tares will be used for park activ­it­ies while more than 7,000 hec­tares will be set aside as a buf­fer zone, an area between the park and the people, bene­fit­ing both.

As part of our pro­gram to pro­mote sus­tain­able tour­ism and com­munity devel­op­ment around Vol­ca­noes Nation­al Park, Red Rocks Ini­ti­at­ive for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment is advoc­at­ing eco­tour­ism and cul­tur­al tourism. 

We believe eco­tour­ism and cul­tur­al tour­ism activ­it­ies can gen­er­ate con­sid­er­able bene­fits for our com­munit­ies, as well as provide invalu­able inter­cul­tur­al and know­ledge exchange bey­ond tra­di­tion­al ‘volun­tour­ism’. 

Red Rocks Ini­ti­at­ive for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment involves the loc­al pop­u­la­tion in everything it does. In that spir­it, we wish to forge part­ner­ships with like-minded indi­vidu­als and organ­isa­tions from around the world to help us pro­gress our sus­tain­able tour­ism and com­munity devel­op­ment projects. 

If you are inter­ested in part­ner­ing with us, we at Red Rocks Ini­ti­at­ive for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment would love to hear from you. Please email info@redrocksinitiative.org.

We have cre­ated a col­lab­or­at­ive envir­on­ment wherein the loc­al com­munity can work togeth­er with us and our part­ners to pos­i­tion eco­tour­ism and cul­tur­al tour­ism activ­it­ies as com­pet­it­ive uses of the land — cre­at­ing jobs, stim­u­lat­ing loc­al micro-enter­prise devel­op­ment, pro­mot­ing loc­al pro­cure­ment, devel­op­ing skills and know­ledge, and ulti­mately improv­ing live­li­hoods with­in and around Vol­ca­noes Nation­al Park — all the while con­serving what makes the region unique.

Our long-term object­ive is to ensure that loc­al people can enhance and lever­age their skills in agri­cul­ture, trade, art, music, edu­ca­tion, and much more, so that our com­munit­ies can raise their liv­ing stand­ards while con­serving their envir­on­ment and hon­our­ing their tra­di­tion­al ways of life.

We also engage in glob­al advocacy through shar­ing our exper­i­ences and urging the tour­ism industry to step up their sense of envir­on­ment­al, social, and cul­tur­al respons­ib­il­ity. Our part­ner­ship with The “Good Tour­ism” Blog is just one example of this.

Read more “GT” con­tent about Red Rocks Rwanda & Red Rocks Initiative

A few of our sustainable tourism and community development projects

At home in Rwanda we have launched many pro­jects, all of which are help­ing loc­al com­munit­ies adja­cent to Vol­ca­noes Nation­al Park gain access to bet­ter edu­ca­tion and train­ing, improved health, as well as high­er sus­tain­able incomes and outcomes. 

Some of these include:

Climate change: Tree planting

Tree plant­ing, refor­est­a­tion, and the intro­duc­tion of renew­able energy and energy-sav­ing pro­grams are import­ant to us. We involve loc­als in plant­ing trees and teach them how to con­serve and main­tain trees for com­bat­ing the effects of cli­mate change. We use seed bags made from banana bark, a bio­de­grad­able altern­at­ive to plastic.

Agriculture: Levelling up skills

Com­munit­ies adja­cent to Vol­ca­noes Nation­al Park depend upon the small plots of land they own for much of their food. We sup­port small-scale sub­sist­ence farm­ers by train­ing them in organ­ic agri­cul­ture prac­tices, such as manure and green waste com­post­ing, to reduce their costs, increase their yields, and help them main­tain the health of their soils as well as the biod­iversity of their surroundings.

Biodiversity: Botanic garden

We estab­lished a botan­ic garden to observe pre­cisely how tour­ism, con­ser­va­tion, and com­munity devel­op­ment can be com­ple­ment­ary. Our gar­dens also cul­tiv­ate tra­di­tion­al medi­cin­al plants and tree spices that tra­di­tion­al doc­tors used to illeg­ally source from Vol­ca­noes Nation­al Park.

Health: Sanitation

Respond­ing to needs and using dona­tions from well-wish­ers who vis­it our area, we help loc­als con­struct pit lat­rines. More than 100 fam­il­ies have bene­fit­ted so far.

Education: School projects

We lever­age our cli­ents’ time and dona­tions here too; for paint­ing and main­tain­ing classrooms in vil­lage schools, and the pur­chase of sta­tion­ery, uni­forms, and shoes for stu­dents. They can also spend time with stu­dents to help them prac­tise their English. 

Culture: Arts for conservation, conserving arts

The cul­tures of the com­munit­ies we serve are intric­ately tied to the nat­ur­al world. By provid­ing spaces for the prac­tice, exhib­i­tion, and sales of tra­di­tion­al and con­tem­por­ary styles of art­work, we rein­force a cul­ture of nature aware­ness and con­ser­va­tion while gen­er­at­ing live­li­hoods for artists. 

Through cooper­at­ive womens asso­ci­ations, we enable com­munit­ies to retain and regain their tra­di­tion­al skills in crafts, such as weav­ing bas­kets, mats, and oth­er products. By selling those products to tour­ists they can earn sup­ple­ment­ary incomes and pos­sibly even gain fin­an­cial inde­pend­ence for them­selves and their children.

In con­clu­sion, not only do we wel­come vis­it­ors to our lands, we wel­come their input and expert­ise too. It’s more than volun­teer­ing or “volun­tour­ism”; it’s shar­ing with our com­munity mem­bers who are keen to learn skills and know­ledge from you, share theirs with you, and provide you with per­haps your most unfor­get­table travel experience.

So, in that same spir­it, we are seek­ing part­ner­ships with like-minded indi­vidu­als and organ­isa­tions from around the world who would like to help us level up and pro­gress our sus­tain­able tour­ism and com­munity devel­op­ment programs. 

If you are even the slight­est bit inter­ested, we at Red Rocks Ini­ti­at­ive for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment would love to hear from you at info@redrocksinitiative.org.