The Institute of Tropical Forest Conservation (ITFC) is located just inside Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. From the path below the station, when the clouds are not too low, we can see the imposing Virunga Volcanoes (think “Gorillas in the mist”) of Rwanda and Congo (DRC) where the other mountain gorillas occur.
It takes a couple of hours by car to reach us from Kabale, the nearest large town, as long as there are no landslides, fallen trees or elephants on the road. We have a staff of about 30, and regularly accommodate local students and foreign researchers, as well as other interested visitors. We have good facilities, with internet, solar power supply and rain water collection from most roofs. ITFC , a field station under Mbarara University of Science and Technology, has been involved in a wide range of research activities since 1995 and has trained a lot of Uganda’s current conservation leaders and academics. However, the station has been strapped for cash the last few years and we are keen to explore new opportunities for sustainable funding.
Though strikingly beautiful, Bwindi is not the easiest place to move around in; it is steep, very rugged and full of dense thickets – the word “impenetrable” did not get into the name by accident. Most tourists come to Bwindi for the gorillas. But the forest contains many other remarkable animals. These include chimpanzees (currently hooting loudly on the slopes below the station as we write this) and the deceptively innocent looking L’Hoests monkeys (another restricted range species) that often hang around our buildings peering in the windows – they have recently begun stealing food if we forget to close doors behind us (we’ll have to wait for market day to get more bananas). Tourists also come to see Bwindi’s many rare and restricted bird species.
People in the surrounding areas are poor and work hard to make a living on the steep slopes. Many of them, especially the Batwa “pygmies”, used to use the forest for all kinds of purposes before they were evicted to make way for the National Park in the early 1990s. ITFC’s field staff is largely drawn from the local population.
ITFC staff currently works with three gorilla groups on a daily basis (two tourist groups and one research group) – this research is led by the Max Planck Institute in Germany. In these groups each animal is known as a distinct individual, with their own personality. Keeping track of the gorilla rivalries, relationships and comings and goings makes keeping track of these groups our own Bwindi soap-opera.
ITFC also works regularly with surrounding communities and the National Park Authorities to monitor and manage access to the protected area for the gathering of culturally important plants used in medicine and crafts. There are various other ongoing studies that we can tell you more about soon. A whole set of new projects proposed by Ugandan university students should soon be selected for ITFC support (via a grant from the MacArthur foundation) – and should start before the end of the year.
One planned activity that should begin in a few months is to set up cameras in the forest that – when triggered by animals moving past – will take pictures automatically. We can scarcely wait to see what we are going to find in those pictures. We’ll keep you informed.
Over the next months we hope that Dennis, Christopher and others will give some flavour of what it is like to live and work here and in the surrounding villages. We are worried about the capacity of our satellite based internet link- so please don’t give up on us if we disappear for a few weeks. We often have storms, and lightning is a recurring danger (the station is perched on a hill top); last year one strike destroyed our modem and gave a severe shock to one of our staff (now fully recovered).