Four Parks and the People Next Door: Tourism and the Environment in Rwanda – Tourism and the Environment in Rwanda (Senior 3 English) | Ganzaa

Tourism and the Environment in Rwanda

Lessons

Senior 3 · English

Tourism and the Environment in Rwanda

5 lessons

Lesson 1 of 5

Four Parks and the People Next Door: Tourism and the Environment in Rwanda

25 min

Let's begin

A visitor may fly thousands of kilometres to spend one hour with a family of gorillas or one morning watching lions. What happens to the money that visitor pays, and who decides whether the forest is still standing when the next visitor comes? This lesson reads about Rwanda's four national parks, the threats they face and the people who live beside them, and builds the vocabulary of tourism and conservation.

Before you read

Name Rwanda's national parks. Have you, or has anyone you know, visited one?
Who do you think gains from tourism in a national park: the visitors, the government, the people living nearby, or the animals?
Why might a farmer who lives next to a park not like it?

Reading: Four Parks and the People Next Door

A feature article. The guide and the farmer are imagined; the facts about the parks come from the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) and African Parks, listed in the credits.

1 Rwanda is a small country, but it holds four national parks, and each of them looks like a different country. In the north-west, Volcanoes National Park protects the bamboo and forest on the slopes of the Virunga volcanoes, the home of the mountain gorilla. In the south-west, Nyungwe National Park covers a vast mountain rainforest, where chimpanzees and other primates live and where visitors can walk along a bridge high above the treetops. In the east, Akagera National Park is a land of savanna, lakes and swamps. In the west, the youngest park, Gishwati-Mukura, was created by law in 2015 to join two forests that are slowly being brought back to life.

2 Tourists come from all over the world to see these places, and they pay well for the experience. "Every visitor who buys a ticket is paying for a ranger, a kilometre of fence or a vet's medicine," says Jean-Paul, a guide who has worked in Akagera for eleven years. "Tourism is the reason this park can protect itself."

3 It was not always so. By the end of the 2000s, Akagera had lost its lions and its rhinos. Since 2010 the park has been managed by African Parks together with RDB. Rangers were trained, a fence was built along the park's western edge, and animals that had vanished were brought back: lions in 2015 and black rhinos in 2017. "When the first lion roared again, the old rangers cried," Jean-Paul remembers. "Some of them had not heard that sound for fifteen years or more."

4 The parks still face serious threats. Poachers set wire snares for antelope, and the snares also catch chimpanzees and gorillas, which can lose a hand or a foot. Some people cut trees for charcoal, dig illegally for minerals, or start fires to clear land or to smoke bees out of their nests for honey. A fire that starts in a dry season can burn for days. Careless visitors leave rubbish behind. And as the population grows, farms press against the very edge of the forest, while animals leave the parks at night to eat the crops next door.

5 No park can be protected if the people next door are against it. For this reason, since 2005, a share of the money that the parks earn has gone to the communities around them, and in 2017 that share was raised to ten per cent. The money pays for schools, health centres, water tanks and roads, and a separate fund pays farmers when wild animals destroy their crops.

6 Mukamana, a farmer who lives on the edge of Nyungwe, explains the difference it has made. "When my son was sick, the nearest health centre was half a day's walk away. Now it takes twenty minutes, and the sign on the door says it was built with park money. I used to think of the forest as a thief that took my beans. Now I think of it as a neighbour who pays rent."

7 Tourism and the environment are tied together like the two ends of one rope. Without the parks, the visitors would not come; without the visitors, there would be far less money to protect the parks. Keeping both ends in our hands is a task for the next generation, which means yours.

Definition

Glossary

savanna (n): a wide, flat or gently rolling grassland with scattered trees, in a hot region with a dry season.
primate (n): a member of the group of animals that includes monkeys, apes such as chimpanzees and gorillas, and humans.
ranger (n): a person whose job is to look after and protect a park or forest.
poacher (n): a person who hunts or catches animals illegally. The crime is poaching.
snare (n): a trap made of a loop of wire or rope that tightens around an animal's leg or neck.
vanish (v): to disappear suddenly or completely.
revenue (n): money that an organisation or government earns.
community (n): the people who live in one area; here, the villages around a park.

Where the four parks are

Comprehension

Answer in full sentences. Questions 1 to 5 ask what the text says; 6 to 8 ask what it means; 9 asks what you think.

Which park is the youngest, and what does it join together?
According to Jean-Paul, what three things does a visitor's ticket help to pay for?
Which animals were brought back to Akagera, and in which years?
Give four threats to the parks named in paragraph 4.
Since when have communities received a share of park revenues, and what share do they receive today?
Why did "the old rangers" cry when they heard a lion roar? (paragraph 3)
Explain Mukamana's comparison: what is the difference between a "thief" and "a neighbour who pays rent"?
The writer compares tourism and the environment to "the two ends of one rope". What does the comparison mean?
Should the share of park revenue that goes to communities be larger? Give one argument for and one against.

Show answersHide answers

Gishwati-Mukura National Park, created by law in 2015; it joins two forests, Gishwati and Mukura.
A ranger, a kilometre of fence or a vet's medicine.
Lions in 2015 and black rhinos in 2017.
Any four of: poachers' wire snares; cutting trees for charcoal; illegal digging for minerals; fires to clear land or collect honey; rubbish left by visitors; farms pressing against the forest; animals eating crops.
Since 2005; ten per cent, since 2017.
They had not heard a lion in Akagera for fifteen years or more; the roar showed that their work had brought the park back to life, so they were moved and proud.
A thief takes and gives nothing back; a neighbour who pays rent uses the land but gives something in return. Mukamana once saw the forest as a loss (animals ate her beans), but now she sees that it brings benefits such as the health centre.
The two depend on each other and are part of one thing: if one is lost, the other is lost too. Parks bring visitors, and visitors bring the money that protects the parks.
Open answer. For: more benefit makes neighbours protect the park and pays for more services. Against: less money would be left for rangers, fences and the animals themselves.

Vocabulary: tourism, and threats to national parks

Tourism word	Meaning
tourist attraction	a place or event that visitors want to see
accommodation	a place to stay, such as a hotel, lodge or campsite (uncountable in British English)
eco-tourism	tourism to natural areas that tries to protect the environment and help local people
itinerary	a plan of a journey: where you will go and when
tour operator	a company that organises and sells holidays and trips
permit	an official paper that allows you to do something, for example to track gorillas
souvenir	an object you buy to remember a place
canopy	the top layer of a forest, formed by the branches and leaves of the tallest trees

Threat	Meaning	Example
poaching	hunting or catching animals illegally	Snares are a common tool of poaching.
deforestation	cutting down forests over a large area	Charcoal-making leads to deforestation.
encroachment	gradually taking over land at the edge of a protected area	Farms encroach on the forest.
habitat loss	the destruction of the natural home of a plant or animal	Habitat loss is the greatest threat to chimpanzees.
bushfire	an uncontrolled fire in grass, bush or forest	A bushfire burned for three days.
illegal mining	digging for minerals without permission	Illegal mining pollutes forest streams.
crop-raiding	wild animals eating or destroying farmers' crops	Buffaloes are often blamed for crop-raiding.
endangered	(of a species) at risk of disappearing for ever (becoming extinct)	The mountain gorilla is an endangered species.

Worked example

Building word families for an essay

Question: Complete the sentences with a form of protect: (a) The ___ of forests is everyone's duty. (b) Akagera is a ___ area. (c) Rangers are very ___ of the young rhinos.

Read the word before and after the gap to find the word class. (a) The ___ of needs a noun. (b) a ___ area needs an adjective before a noun. (c) very ___ of needs an adjective after be.
List the family: protect (v), protection (n), protected (adj: under protection), protective (adj: wanting to protect), protector (n: a person).
Choose by meaning: (a) protection; (b) protected, because the area is given protection by law; (c) protective, because the rangers want to protect them.

Worked example

Working out a word from context: "encroach"

Sentence: "As the population grows, farms press against the very edge of the forest." A ranger later says: "Farms encroach on the forest a few metres every year."

Word class: after farms (subject), so it is a verb.
Company it keeps: on the forest, a few metres every year: something slow that moves into the forest.
Link to the reading: paragraph 4 describes farms pressing against the forest's edge.
Meaning: to move slowly into an area that belongs to someone or something else. The noun is encroachment.

Tip

Learn the verb that goes with the threat. We set snares, clear land, start or put out a fire, dump rubbish, track gorillas, book accommodation and issue a permit. Using the right verb makes your writing sound natural.

Warning

Accommodation and information are uncountable in British English: wrong three accommodations; right three places to stay or accommodation for three people.
Savanna (also spelled savannah) is a kind of land, not a forest. Akagera is a savanna park; Nyungwe is a rainforest.
A species becomes extinct when every individual has died. An animal that has disappeared from one park but lives elsewhere is locally extinct, as Akagera's lions were before 2015.

A day in the life of a tour guide inside Akagera Park, from RwandaTV. Note three things the guide does in one working day, and compare them with what Jean-Paul says in the reading.

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Practice

Give the word from the glossary or tables for each meaning: (a) a trap made of a loop of wire; (b) the top layer of a forest; (c) a plan of a journey; (d) to disappear completely.
True or false, according to the reading? Correct each false statement. (a) Akagera is a mountain rainforest. (b) Black rhinos were brought back to Akagera in 2017. (c) Communities have received ten per cent of park revenues since 2005.
Match each threat with its cause: (a) deforestation; (b) crop-raiding; (c) bushfire. Causes: animals leaving a park at night; a fire started to collect honey; cutting trees for charcoal.
Complete with a form of the word in brackets: (a) Poachers are a threat to ___ species. (danger) (b) ___ of the forest has slowed since the law. (destroy) (c) The ___ of a lion pride took several years. (introduce, with re-)
Choose the correct word: (a) We booked (accommodation / an accommodation) near the park. (b) Visitors need a (permit / permission paper) to track gorillas. (c) The guide gave us a lot of (informations / information).
Explain in two sentences why the reading says that "no park can be protected if the people next door are against it".
Write a paragraph of 80 to 100 words about a natural place near your home: what makes it special, one threat it faces, and one thing your community could do about it.

Show answersHide answers

(a) snare; (b) canopy; (c) itinerary; (d) vanish.
(a) False: Akagera is a land of savanna, lakes and swamps; Nyungwe is the rainforest. (b) True. (c) False: the share began in 2005 and was raised to ten per cent in 2017.
(a) cutting trees for charcoal; (b) animals leaving a park at night; (c) a fire started to collect honey.
(a) endangered; (b) Destruction; (c) reintroduction.
(a) accommodation; (b) permit; (c) information.
Neighbours who gain nothing from a park may poach, cut trees or farm inside it, and rangers cannot watch every metre. If they benefit, as through revenue sharing, they help to protect it.
Open answer. Check that it names a place, a threat and an action, uses at least three words from the tables correctly, and keeps to 80 to 100 words.

Sources and credits

Feature article "Four Parks and the People Next Door" (imagined guide and farmer), glossary, compass grid, comprehension questions, vocabulary tables, worked examples and practice: written by Ganzaa.
Facts on the tourism revenue-sharing programme (begun in 2005, raised to ten per cent in 2017) and on Gishwati-Mukura National Park (created by Law N° 45 of 2015): Rwanda Development Board.
Facts on Akagera (managed with RDB since 2010; lions reintroduced in 2015 and black rhinos in 2017): African Parks, Akagera National Park.
Photos: Nyungwe canopy walk, Laeliza23, and Staring Zebras, KJ, both Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Video: A day in the life of a tour guide inside Akagera Park, RwandaTV, embedded from YouTube, not copied.

Written by Ganzaa, except the photos credited above. This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.

1Before you read

2Reading: Four Parks and the People Next Door

3Where the four parks are

4Comprehension

5Vocabulary: tourism, and threats to national parks

Before you read

Reading: Four Parks and the People Next Door

Where the four parks are

Comprehension

Vocabulary: tourism, and threats to national parks