Living with Gorillas

Eye to Eye with Gorillas

Nearly half of the remaining population of mountain gorillas is found in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest of Uganda. Visually there is a clear line between the forest and the rural agriculture of one of the poorest and most densely populated areas in Uganda.  In reality, the line is not so clear.  People and livestock wander into the forest in search of resources like fuel wood and food, while gorilla families are known to raid the crops at the near the edge of the forest.

Our in-country collaborator is a group called Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH) that is working to balance the health of both people and gorillas of the area.  Reducing the interactions between people and great apes reduces the possibilities of disease transmission. CTPH volunteers from within the communities teach about disease transmission and livestock and crop management, as well as family planning and sexual health.

Thanks to CTPH, and generous gifts from the Disney's Friends for Change and Shultz Steel, we are able to bring a host of resources’ to this important community on the border of the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest.

Going Ape with Aquaculture

The ECOLIFE Foundation, in collaboration with CTPH, is implementing a program to build and teach about community-based aquaponics in Bwindi, Uganda to address a need for healthy sources of food while reducing the problems associated with hunting bush meat in gorilla habitats. This pilot program will 1) provide an aquaponics model in Bwindi, 2) teach staff of CTPH and members of the community about aquaponics as an alternative sustainable protein source to bush meat, and 3) provide a microenterprise where family incomes can be supplemented with the selling of fish and produce from aquaponics at local village markets.

CTPH and ECOLIFE staff will provide aquaponics workshops to the community. The goal of these workshops will be to provide a simple and sustainable aquaponics design plan, as well as resources, for community members to duplicate the system at their homes, schools or community facilities. The workshops will target and evaluate a minimum of 300 community members.

Rainwater harvesting/water filtration

Another conflict between humans and gorillas around Bwindi is deforestation, as the communities use trees to make charcoal for cooking and heating.  ECOLIFE is developing a  biogas program in Bwindi to help generate sustainable energy for the community. Our system will allow the community to process animal waste into methane gas and use the gas to make charcoal from agricultural waste. It protects a traditional way of cooking for families while preserving forests for gorillas. Combining this sustainably-produced charcoal with a fuel-efficient stove is another way of making life healthier for both people and the environment. ECOLIFE has successfully used a similar approach in their Monarch Butterfly program in Mexico.

The ECOLIFE Foundation, along with Hubbell and Hubbell Architects and CTPH, has also assisted in the design of a new green research facility in Uganda, with the goal of having it built in 2012.

Special Acknowledgements

Thank you to our generous program sponsors