Tourism and the Environment in Rwanda
Senior 3 · English
Tourism and the Environment in Rwanda
Lesson 2 of 5
25 min
Let's begin
Rangers cannot protect a forest alone; the people who live beside it decide much of its future. In this lesson you listen to a village meeting on the edge of Nyungwe, where a ranger and a former poacher explain how the forest is protected. Then you become a tour guide and present an attraction, learn where the stress falls in words such as rainforest and well-known, and plan a museum exhibit about Rwanda's cultural heritage.
Important
Listening script: A Meeting under the Fig Tree, for five readers
Only the readers open the script; everyone else keeps it closed until the tasks are done. About three minutes. The village, the speakers and the numbers they give are imagined.
CHAIR (Mr Nsengiyumva): Good afternoon, everyone. Today we have two guests. Ms Uwera is a ranger in Nyungwe, and most of you already know Mr Sebahire. Ms Uwera, please begin.
RANGER: Thank you. Let me start with a number: last month my team removed sixty-three wire snares from the forest. Sixty-three. Each one was waiting for an antelope, but a snare cannot choose. Two weeks ago we found a young chimpanzee with wire cutting into its wrist. Our vet saved the hand, but only just.
WOMAN (Mukarugwiza): Why should that be our problem? The forest isn't ours.
RANGER: In a way it is. The forest feeds the streams that water your fields. And remember who visits the chimpanzees: tourists, whose tickets helped to build the health centre down the road.
CHAIR: Mr Sebahire, you know this from the other side.
SEBAHIRE: I do. For eleven years I set snares and I took honey from wild bees inside the forest. To take the honey, you smoke the bees out with fire. One dry August a fire I started got away from me and burned for two days. I watched the smoke from my house and I was afraid every minute.
YOUTH (Kevin): So what made you stop?
SEBAHIRE: Fear first, and then an offer. Our cooperative was given modern hives and training. Now forty of my hives stand here, outside the forest, at the edge of the tea fields. The bees still visit the forest flowers, but nobody lights a fire. Last season I sold more honey than I ever took from the forest, and I sleep at night.
YOUTH: What can young people do?
RANGER: Three things. First, if you see a snare or a fire, report it at once; don't try to remove a snare with an animal in it yourself. Second, never buy bushmeat; if nobody buys it, nobody hunts it. Third, join the tree-planting days in the buffer zone, the strip of land between the farms and the forest.
WOMAN: And the buffaloes that eat my beans?
RANGER: Report the damage to your sector office. There is a fund that pays farmers for crops destroyed by wild animals, but you must report it quickly, with a photo if you can.
CHAIR: Thank you both. Next Saturday's tree planting starts at seven. Bring a hoe, and bring your neighbours.
Copy and complete the table.
| Speaker | Fact or story they give | Action or advice |
|---|---|---|
| Ms Uwera | her team removed … snares last month; a young … had wire cutting into its wrist | report snares and fires; never buy …; plant trees in the … |
| Mr Sebahire | set snares for … years; a fire he started burned for … days | now keeps … hives outside the forest |
| Mukarugwiza | buffaloes eat her … | report the damage to the … office |
3. Why does the ranger mention the health centre in her answer to Mukarugwiza?
4. Mr Sebahire says he stopped because of "fear first, and then an offer". Why was the offer necessary as well as the fear?
5. Why does the ranger warn young people not to remove a snare with an animal in it themselves?
Definition
bushmeat (n): meat from wild animals hunted for food, usually illegally.
buffer zone (n): a strip of land between a protected area and the land around it, which reduces conflict and damage between them.
cooperative (n): a business owned and run by its members, who share the profits.
heritage (n): the traditions, buildings, objects and skills that a people has received from the past and wants to keep. Cultural heritage.
A guide's short talk follows a pattern that keeps visitors listening.
| Stage | Useful language |
|---|---|
| 1. Welcome and hook | Welcome to … Have you ever wondered …? Imagine … |
| 2. Where it is | It is located in … District, about … kilometres from … You can get there by … |
| 3. What to see and do | The highlight is … Don't miss … You can also … |
| 4. Why it matters | It is famous for … It tells the story of … It is one of the best places to … |
| 5. Practical tips | The best time to visit is … Remember to bring … Please don't … |
| 6. Closing | If you love …, you will love … Enjoy your visit! |
Choose one attraction and give a two-minute talk to a group of "tourists" (your classmates). Choices: the King's Palace Museum in Nyanza; the Ethnographic Museum in Huye; Lake Kivu; the canopy walk in Nyungwe; a game drive in Akagera; an attraction in your own district. The listeners must ask one question each.
Worked example
Turning facts into a guide's opening
Facts: King's Palace Museum; Nyanza, Southern Province; a rebuilt royal house of grass and wood; long-horned Inyambo cattle.
A compound is made of two words joined together: rain + forest. Whether the stress falls on the first or the second part depends on the kind of compound. Getting it wrong can even change the meaning.
| Kind of compound | Stress | Examples (stressed part in capitals) |
|---|---|---|
| Compound noun | usually on the first part | RAINforest · BUSHfire · WATERfall · GUIDEbook · SUNrise · TOUR guide · BUS station |
| Compound adjective | usually on the second part | well-KNOWN · world-FAMOUS · eco-FRIENDLY · old-FASHIONED · bad-TEMPERED |
| Compound verb | usually on the second part | underSTAND · overLOOK · outRUN |
| Adjective + noun (not a compound) | on the noun | national PARK · wild ANIMAL · tall TREE |
Stress changes meaning. A GREENhouse is a glass building for growing plants; a green HOUSE is a house painted green. A BLACKbird is one kind of bird; a black BIRD is any bird that is black.
Say it. Read aloud with the correct stress: "The well-known tour guide met us at the bus station, and we walked through the rainforest to a world-famous waterfall."
Tip
Tap the table. Tap once, loudly, on the stressed part as you say each word: RAIN-forest (tap-tap), well-KNOWN (tap-TAP). If the loud tap is in the wrong place, you will feel it.
Warning
In groups of four, plan one exhibit for a school "museum of Rwandan heritage". Choose an object, art or practice: for example imigongo (the geometric art associated with the east of Rwanda, especially Kirehe District), agaseke, ingoma, intore dance, or a tool from unit 5.
INGOMA (drum)
Rwanda. Wood and cowhide.
A drum carved from a single log and covered with cowhide, laced tight with leather strips and wooden pegs. Drums were beaten at ceremonies, dances and celebrations, and a set of drums played together can be heard across the hills. Please do not touch.
Sample label, written for this lesson.
How to Pronounce: Word Stress, Compound Nouns, from VOA Learning English. Note every compound noun in the video, mark its stress, and add three compounds of your own about tourism.
Practice
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa, except the photo credited above.
