Grace Uwingeneye
The Main purpose of the project is to work with local people living around NNP, starting by one among five districts surrounding NNP.I plan to conduct research on crops not edible to baboons but important to farmers for the economic development. We will create plots in gardens adjacent to the park where it will be easy for baboons to access them, record the number of baboon’s proximity to gardens, and the quantity of crops eaten if consumed. The proposed crops are vegetables and spices already being grown in some parts of Rwanda and consumed everywhere. We will work with an agronomist expertise for relating the species with the soil quality, we will also assist in linking the farmers to the markets to ensure that the product will be profitable, and this will help to reduce many claims of compensation of farmers to the governments and help to improve community welfare for them.
My research project will take place around NNP that will start in Nyamagabe district, kitabi sector where we plan to grow suggested crops not palatable to baboons but important to human being for the economic development and improvement of the community welfare.
Our plan is working together with those living in proximity to NNP impacted by crop raiding, growing unpalatable crops by baboons that will secure the families’ food, improve livelihood of communities and in turn save baboons, duikers and chimpanzees from retaliation activities.The crop species will be grown near people’s houses that live, purchase and distribute equipment to assess how these crops will survive with soil conditions in the region, and to check if the species are eaten by baboons or not However, Crops grown around Nyungwe forest have been damaged by wild animals that exit the park and cause conflict to humans and due to continuous crop raiding by baboons around NN P, it has been observed the retaliation activities. There are many individuals observed in the group of baboons whose home range is Kitabi where Nyungwe National Park has headquarters, with serious injuries and loss of body parts like arms and tails. Those one which are killed are most of the time hidden from the sight of park managers. Due to persistent crop raiding which affect communities by worsening food insecurity, become a pushing factor of many community members to go to seek alternative source of food in Nyungwe Forest. They set traps to catch animals like Dark fronted duiker, porcupines which sometimes unintentionally catch eastern chimpanzees.
Throughout the implementation of this project we will involve local people in charge to assist with monitoring of baboons and the introduced crops by discussion on conservation concepts with local people to keep them updated and informed about the importance of wildlife conservation and the strategies for project implementation. The new crops introduced will be valuable crops for the farmers to sell to local tourist organizations especially in hotels & Restaurants since there is currently not much variety of available vegetables for the tourist venues to use in their kitchens. This could lead to added value for the farmers involved in this project.