Rwanda names baby mountain gorillas, celebrates conservation & ecotourism

The world has met in Kinigi, Musan­ze at the foot­hills of Rwanda’s Vol­ca­noes Nation­al Park to name 23 baby moun­tain gor­il­las in a glob­al cel­eb­ra­tion of con­ser­va­tion and com­munity-led efforts to pro­tect their habitat. 

Graced by HE the First Lady of Rwanda, Jean­nette Kagame, the 19th Kwita Izina Gor­illa Nam­ing Cere­mony, Septem­ber 1, brought togeth­er dis­tin­guished Namers, Friends of Rwanda, spe­cial guests, and tens of thou­sands of people from the com­munit­ies sur­round­ing Vol­ca­noes Nation­al Park. 

“Moun­tain gor­il­las rep­res­ent more than a source of tour­ism, or adven­tur­ous enter­tain­ment,“ said Mrs Kagame. “To us, our gor­il­las are the cus­todi­ans of a nature we cherish. 

“Rwanda’s efforts to pro­tect its biod­iversity have been multi-faceted, and multi-pur­posed. From loc­al and inter­na­tion­al advocacy, to the cre­ation and expan­sion of nation­al parks, no stone is being left unturned.”

Clare Akaman­zi, Chief Exec­ut­ive Officer, Rwanda Devel­op­ment Board (RDB), said: “When we invest in nature, we are also invest­ing in ourselves because our envir­on­ment is the found­a­tion of our economy. 

“This is why Rwanda invests heav­ily in build­ing an eco­tour­ism industry that bene­fits both our people and our planet. 

“I invite every­one to fol­low the jour­neys of the baby gor­il­las named today. Let their stor­ies be a liv­ing test­a­ment of our com­mit­ment today.“

RDB’s Chief Tour­ism Officer, Michaella Rug­w­iz­an­goga said: “Since Kwita Izina began, 374 baby moun­tain gor­il­las have been named, and the pop­u­la­tion in the Vir­unga Mas­sif has grown by 23%, accord­ing to the most recent census. 

“This remark­able achieve­ment would not have been pos­sible without the com­munit­ies liv­ing around the park, ded­ic­ated con­ser­va­tion­ists and research­ers as well as vis­ion­ary lead­er­ship. That is why today is also a cel­eb­ra­tion of the trans­form­at­ive power of con­ser­va­tion in loc­al communities.” 

The 23 baby gor­il­las were named by con­ser­va­tion cham­pi­ons, com­munity her­oes, sports stars, industry lead­ers, and inter­na­tion­al artists and celebrities:

• Audrey Azoulay, Dir­ect­or Gen­er­al, United Nations Edu­ca­tion­al, Sci­entif­ic and Cul­tur­al Organ­iz­a­tion (UNESCO)
• Cyrille Bol­loré, Chief Exec­ut­ive Officer, Bolloré
• Sol Camp­bell, Arsen­al and Eng­land foot­ball legend
• Win­ston Duke, act­or and producer
• Inno­cent Dusabeyezu, Ranger, Vol­ca­noes Nation­al Park
• Idris Elba, OBE, act­or, pro­du­cer, and musi­cian & Sab­rina Dhowre Elba, CEO, mod­el, act­iv­ist and UN Good­will Ambas­sad­or for IFAD
• Bukola Elemide, a.k.a. Aṣa, sing­er, song­writer, and record­ing artist
• Ineza Umuhoza Grace, Founder and Chief Exec­ut­ive Officer, The Green Protector
• Larry Green, Board Trust­ee, Afric­an Wild­life Foundation
• Danai Guri­ra, act­or, act­iv­ist, and playwright
• Kev­in Hart, comedi­an and actor
• Elvine Ineza, Primary Six Stu­dent at Regina Pacis School, Musan­ze District
• Queen Kalimp­inya, rally car driver and gender equal­ity advocate
• Bern­ard Lama, former Par­is Saint-Ger­main and France foot­ball goalkeeper
• Jonath­an Ledgard, nov­el­ist
• Rt. Hon. Andrew Mitchell MP, Min­is­ter of State for Devel­op­ment and Africa in the For­eign, Com­mon­wealth & Devel­op­ment Office, United Kingdom
• Joakim Noah, former Chica­go Bulls bas­ket­ball center/forward & Lais Ribeiro, inter­na­tion­al model
• Dr. Sierk Poet­ting, Chief Oper­at­ing Officer, BioNTech SE
• Zurab Polo­likashvili, Sec­ret­ary Gen­er­al, United Nations World Tour­ism Organ­iz­a­tion (UNWTO)
• Anders Hol­ch Povlsen, Chief Exec­ut­ive Officer, Bestseller
• HE Hazza AlQahtani, Ambas­sad­or of the United Arab Emir­ates to the Repub­lic of Rwanda
• Joe Schoen­dorf, Sil­ic­on Val­ley pioneer
• Nick Stone, Lead Dir­ect­or, Wilderness
• Prof. Özlem Türeci, M.D. Chief Med­ic­al Officer, BioNTech SE

Before these people announced the names of the baby gor­il­las, tens of thou­sands of loc­al Rwandans attend­ing Kwita Izina enjoyed ener­get­ic per­form­ances from Rwandan pop­u­lar musi­cians and a cul­tur­al show fea­tur­ing 180 artists from the Mashirika Per­form­ing Arts and Media Company.

They cel­eb­rated 19 years of Kwita Izina through the theme of con­sist­ency, growth, and expansion.

“Con­ser­va­tion is Life” was the tagline for the 19th Kwita Izina.

Fea­tured image (top of post): Meet Mukund­wa, Teta’s son, who was named today by Andrew Mitchell MP of the UK. Mukund­wa means ‘favoured’. Find more pics of the baby gor­il­las named at the 19th Kwita Izina.

The “Good Tour­ism” Blog was rep­res­en­ted at Kwita Izina by pub­lish­er Dav­id Gill­banks at the invit­a­tion of the Rwanda Devel­op­ment Board (RDB). Dav­id was invited to Rwanda by RDB and “GT” Part­ners Red Rocks Rwanda and Red Rocks Ini­ti­at­ive for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment.

Find ‘Post­cards from Rwanda’ at The “GT” Travel Blog.