Rwanda's Gishwati Forest will grow this year as a result of attempts by Des Moines-based Great Ape Trust and Earthpark to accelerate reforestation in the heavily cleared area.
The east African forest is home to 14 endangered chimpanzees along with rare plant species. It is ringed by impoverished villagers who are being encouraged to shift to jobs that don't involve cutting down trees to make, for example, charcoal or crafts.
The trust announced this week that the forest will grow by 21 percent, which will help the chimps, fight climate change and stem soil erosion that has left streams in Rwanda largely lifeless, ape trust officials said.
The Gishwati Area Conservation Program - which teams the Des Moines organizations with federal and local Rwandan governments - was the subject of a Register report in December, in partnership with the International Reporting Project. The series is available at DesMoines Register.com/Rwanda.
The program plans to hire a contractor to begin planting trees in the Kinyenkanda area that marks the northern reach of what will become a 31-mile forest corridor through western Rwanda.
The idea is to connect the Gishwati forest - which had nearly disappeared because of cattle ranching, charcoal production and crop farming - with the larger and more pristine Nyungwe Forest in southern Rwanda. The result would be a broader range for chimpanzees, jobs for tree planters and forest guards, and better soil conservation, backers say.
Great Ape Trust plans to encourage the contractor to hire residents who had to move to make room for the forest corridor. In November, the government finished relocating 150 families in the Kinyenkanda area. The Gishwati program paid $10,000 to buy land for the families.
Gishwati, Rwanda's first conservation park, will grow from 3,018 acres to 3,665, said ape trust conservation director Ben Beck. The work will help reduce severe soil erosion that has left the Sebeya River the color of creamed coffee. The siltation has degraded drinking water and forced added treatment at a local brewery.
"The water quality of the Sebeya River is linked to the health of local people and the national economy," Beck said. "The Sebeya is not only an important source of drinking water for local residents, but it also provides hydroelectric power and water for beverage production downstream."
The Gishwati program also plans to hire two more ecoguards, who will patrol the Kinyenkanda area, where vandals destroyed some earlier plantings.
The Gishwati Area Conservation Program began in 2007 when Rwanda President Paul Kagame and Ted Townsend, founder of Great Ape Trust and Earthpark, agreed to create Rwanda's first conservation park. The goal was to fight climate change, improve biodiversity, save the chimps, and create jobs that would help preserve the forest.
