Conservation of the Mountain Gorilla and its Habitat in Rwanda

Abstract

Over the last twenty years, the population of Mountain Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla beringei) in the Virunga Volcanoes region of Rwanda, Uganda, and Zaire, has halved from an estimated 400–500 to fewer than 250. The major cause of this decline is loss of habitat through large-scale appropriation of National Park land in Rwanda for agriculture, and through encroachment by local people and their cattle which causes extensive damage to vegetation within the protected area.