New gorilla lodge opens in Rwanda

A new eco-friendly lodge, which will donate part of its profits back into mountain gorilla conservation, has opened in Rwanda.

The Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge has been built thanks to a trust set up by the African Wildlife Foundation, the Governors’ Camp Collective and the local Kinigi community.

The lodge is in the Virunga Heartland, a mountainous landscape in the western part of the Great Rift Valley.

As well as mountain gorillas, the region is home to chimpanzees, golden monkeys, forest elephants and a huge variety of bird species.

“Visitors can help put conservation enterprise into practice while getting a chance to see majestic mountain gorillas and a special part of the world,” commented Craig Sholley, the AWF’s Senior Director of Development.

The opening ceremony for the lodge coincided with Rwanda’s annual naming ceremony of young gorillas, known as Kwita Izina.

During the ceremony, a baby gorilla was named Sacola after the name of the fund that built the new lodge.

The number of visitors coming to the naming ceremony has increased and now become an important source of income for projects in the Virunga Heartland community.

Rwanda recently shared US$174,000 in visitor revenue with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This is part of an agreement between the governments of Rwanda, the DRC and Uganda to share revenue, mountain gorilla research findings and conservation efforts.