Virunga Massif (Virunga Mountains)
Virunga Massif, Virunga mountains are a chain of volcanoes in East Africa in the area where Rwanda ,the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda meet. The mountains cover South West part of Uganda (mgahinga NP) the Eastern part of Democratic Republic of Congo covering (Virunga NP) and North West part of Rwanda which covers the volcanoes national park. These mountains offer one of the unique tourist attractions sites in Africa and a home to world’s only mountain gorillas and golden monkeys. The Virunga mountains has 8 distributed volcanic mountains found in three countries for example Mount Nyiragongo ,Mount Nyamuragira and Mount Mikena in Democratic republic of Congo, Mount Bisoke, Mount Karisismbi at the border of Rwanda, and Mount Sabinyo, Mount Ngahiga and Mount Muhabura at the border of Uganda and Rwanda.
Gorilla doctors are a team of international wild life veterinarians dedicated to provide life saving veterinary care to endangered mountain gorillas in their natural habitats .They regularly monitor the health of mountain gorillas and intervene to treat individuals with life threatening illness. Virunga Massif have showed a remarkable increase in population, habituated gorillas have also learned to accept humans in their close proximity.
Conservation Effort Includes
Disease prevention
Mountain gorilla conservation effort has been possible with the help of public health organizations (Gorilla doctors) that work tirelessly to treat the gorillas and the prevent the spread of diseases amongst themselves.
Community involvement
Through emphasizing the importance of gorilla tourism, communities receive given percentage from the revenue collected so as to improve their ways of life and participate in the sector by providing services. This has changed their mentality towards the gorillas and instead turned into their protectors. Gorilla doctors train park staff in wildlife to monitor and establish an early warning signs of disease outbreak.
Research and education
The responsible bodies like UWA, Rwanda Development Board established the research centre in the Virunga Mountains of Rwanda and has helped the natives to deepen their understandings on the gorilla behaviors and social structures, helping to eliminate their misconception about them. Gorilla doctors too educate park personnel and local communities on gorilla health and conservation.
Monitory and interventions.
Virunga Massif, Conservation efforts including gorilla doctors make regular health checks and medical intervention for habituated gorilla groups. They have made sure that all mountain gorillas live in a fully protected area and have been able to reduce on the infectious diseases by keeping few gorillas around human communities living nearby.
Addressing threats
Raising awareness has brought attention to the threats faced by mountain gorillas such as poaching, habitat loss. They have worked to protect the gorillas taking steps like confronting the poachers, burning traps and treating the endangered gorillas as providing preventative health care. This is done through working with patrols to catch poachers and stop land encroachment.
Sustainable tourism.
With the help of gorilla doctors, the park gates are closed to tourism in case there is a pandemic outbreak .this shields the mountain gorilla from getting infected. Any gorilla that fall ill are monitored and treated by veterinary personnel to avoid death and protect other species. By doing that, they come up with policies that aim at achieving a common goal of conserving the gorillas. Also encourages tourists to be mindful of their actions and their impact to the habitats and local communities.
Revenue generation
Local communities are empowered to manage natural resources sustainably and generate income through various activities like agriculture, eco-tourism, making crafts as it improves their ways of living as it also contributes to development of infrastructures like health cares that can be easily accessible to provide treatment to the injured and endangered gorillas as well as communities and thus improving overall quality of life for residents.
Conservation Effort Includes
This is an organization committed to support the conservation of biodiversity through enabling people gorillas and other species to co-exist in their protected areas through improved health and livelihoods. It is a sector in Bwindi impenetrable national park that utilizes a public health approach to protect gorilla and wildlife by improving their health and livelihoods of the surrounding communities. It focuses on protecting critically endangered mountain gorillas through public health and preventing disease transmission between human, livestock and wildlife by creating harmonious co-existence between people and parks biodiversity. These include
Community engagement and empowerment
The involvement of the local communities is one of the essential aspects of the conservation through public health strategy. It educates the community members to provide integrated wellness and conservation. It encourages communities to manage their natural resources sustainably and generate income through various activities like agriculture eco-tourism.it promotes hygiene, sanitation, and family planning and educate people on the risks of human gorilla disease transmission.
Gorilla health monitoring
These train rangers, trackers and community volunteers to monitor gorilla health including clinical signs. These helps prevent diseases transmission between humans and gorillas.it ensures that all mountain gorillas live in a protected space and to provide veterinary care to those that are injured or endangered also to give support to widow mountain gorillas.
Conservation efforts
They collaborate with Uganda Wildlife Authority and others partners to conserve mountain gorillas and their habitats. Rules and regulations are put in place to be followed when embarking on gorilla trekking in these regions like maintaining 7 meters distance from the gorillas so as not to transmit any infections to them.
Diseases prevention
Buhoma conservation works with Uganda Wildlife Authority to train park staff in wildlife health monitoring and establish an early warning system for disease outbreak .It conducts research on diseases that can be transmitted between human and wildlife.
Education and Advocacy
They provide educational programs to raise awareness about conservation issues and promote positive attitudes towards wildlife and their habitats.