Conservation Diplomacy: Mountain Gorillas and the Greater Virunga Landscape

IGCP was formed to be focused on the survival of the mountain gorilla subspecies, split between two isolated and transboundary populations at the intersection of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda. From sharing information on the threats to these gorillas, to sharing revenue from tourism to habituated groups of gorillas, the collaborations have grown from the grassroots to the national level, recently marked by the signature in 2015 of the treaty on the Greater Virunga Transboundary Collaboration for Wildlife Conservation and Tourism Development. Given the changing context of conservation in the region, IGCP has adapted its role in conservation diplomacy over its last 25 years to ensure that the players continue working together to achieve the shared objectives.

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