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Akagera National Park and Its Benefits to Nearby Communities
Akagera National Park is best known for its wildlife diversity which includes herds of elephants, buffaloes and a few primates like the baboons which you can find in the forested areas. Its existence is of great significance to the surrounding community in many ways. Below we have listed some of the benefit of Akagera National Park to its nearby community.
Job Opportunities: To begin with is creating job opportunities to people such as community-freelancing guides who supplement the official guides and they help in mobilizing the communities to support the conservation efforts something that some of them have financially gained from after understanding the importance of wildlife and nature protection.
Guide Training Programes: The biggest impact is so far the initiation of the guide training program for the locals who later ride along with tourists more so during the game drives around the park to help identify hot spots for wildlife viewing and also provide the information visitors may wish to know about Akagera Park. This kind of job earns them $30 everyday and through annual training, so many locals have become professional guides therefore have bettered their lives.
Training Humanitarian Workers: Through training guides, they have also trained humanitarian workers who help in different ways like financially supporting the genocide survivors, setting up homes for the returnees which was their very first charitable project, establishing co-operatives to help the poor which is one of their goals. This has helped in stabilizing the communities around.
Encouraging Community Tourism Activities: The Akagera park management encourages community tourism activities that involve taking visitors around for community Village visits to teach them the traditional way of life, they can visit the farm s at the border of the park. Village visits are charged therefore it’s a source of income for the community.
The significant wildlife conservation strategies like the reintroduction of the lions in the park were intended to get the park highly competitive. This will be followed with the introduction of black rhino and the Akagera will become one of the big five wildlife parks but the only one with the big fives as well as the rare shoe bill stork thus attracting more tourists, both the bird watchers and game viewers. This is important in a sense that the better the park gets in terms of attractions, the more opportunities it provides for the locals as they have higher chances of improving their lives and community in general. This is evident with an increase in the number of guides since the introduction of the lions.
Community Development: The Park has led to the establishment of facilities like lodges and it also contributes to community development through schools and hospital. The safety of people and their properties is also important which is why a fence was built to prevent the wildlife from crossing over to communities endangering lives and domestic animals as well crops.
