Will Rwanda ever reduce on gorilla permit price

October 29, 2015

Will Rwanda ever reduce on gorilla permit price

The cost of gorilla trekking permits for Rwanda is currently $1500 per person per trek. It is the highest cost of gorilla trekking amongst the three gorilla trekking habitats. Rwanda conserves the mountain gorillas in Volcanoes national Park with other primates like golden monkeys, black and white colobus and others.

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Rwanda increased its gorilla permit cost from $750 to currently $500 per person but no hope of reducing or discounting this price because of the need to support mountain gorilla conservation. During the Covid-19 lock down, mountain gorillas were some of the highly protected primates because they are susceptible to such communicable infections.

With the conservation measures set to protect the only leftover mountain gorillas in the world, Rwanda needs financial support. One of the ways to get money is the sale of the Rwanda Gorilla trekking permits.

What Is the Cost Of Rwanda Gorilla Trekking Permit

The Rwanda gorilla trekking Permit costs $1500 per person per trek and this price is inclusive of:

Rwanda Ranger guide fee

Every group of gorilla trekkers is led by a professional ranger guide who is familiar with the wilderness. These ranger guides are trained over time to perfect this work and overtime taken for retreats to upgrade their knowledge of the environment they work with.

Because this is the ranger guide’s workplace, they deserve to be paid salaries to encourage them to keep on participating in the conservation of mountain gorillas and others forest dwellers.

When you purchase the gorilla permit for Rwanda, this cost is included. The general world economy has increased and so even the salaries of the ranger guides must be improved too. This enables them to take care of their households.

Gorilla Medical Care

Mountain gorillas at times acquire injuries or infections that may not be cured by mere herbs in the wild since they are wild animals that need to acquire their treatment by themselves from the wild. Gorilla Doctors often provide extra medical attention to these primates to ensure that they are in good health status.

They administer treatment to these gentle giants in the wild and randomly collect samples of their dung or blood to check on their general health status. Some of the money that supports mountain gorilla checkups is included in the cost of Rwanda gorilla permits.

Security of Gorilla Trekking area In Rwanda

The Virunga region being a forested area requires some extra security from each government’s security organs. The ranger guides collaborate with other Rwandan security to give law and order in this area. The safety of tourists and locals around the Park is very important for gorilla trekking in Rwanda to be enjoyed. After the Rwanda genocide of 1994, Rwanda is steadily growing in terms of tourism and other economic activities. There is no room for creating instability in this area because the mountain gorillas have to be conserved and allow tourists have to view them too.

Volcanoes National Park Maintenance

Park maintenance is done using some of the funds collected from the sale of gorilla trekking permits. To improve services at the headquarters of the park, road maintenance within the park, trail construction and much more is done using part of the funds collected from the gorilla permit sale.

During gorilla trekking, the ranger guide needs to use a machete to create paths to where the mountain gorillas may be feeding or lounging for the day. Even some communication gadgets like radio call they use in the forest to communicate with other rangers are bought or maintained using the money from the sale of gorilla permits in Rwanda.

Advertising and Promoting Rwanda As An African Safari Destination

Rwanda for years is advertising it’s being a worthy African destination to visit by supporting international football like Arsenal Team. Some of such support Rwanda gets from collection accrued from the sale of gorilla permits.

Rwanda has limited resources and so must use the ones present like mountain gorilla permit sales to earn forex that can support its growing economy.

Support Local Community Around Volcanoes National Park In Rwanda

To conserve the mountain gorillas, the communities around Volcanoes National Park must be brought on board. 20% of the precedes acquired from the sale of Rwanda gorilla permits is given to the local community to support there projects like road maintenance, build schools, improve medical facilities in the community and others.

In turn the local support the existence of the mountain gorillas amongst them even if they stray into there farmlands, they just call authorities concerned instead of setting snares.

Support Mountain Gorilla Research Projects In Rwanda

Although gorilla research station was set up in Karisoke Rwanda by American Naturist Dian Fossey, more research about the life of the mountain gorillas is still needed as long as there conservation is still going on.

Like humans, the mountain gorillas are dynamic animals whose health, moods and life changes any time. This need to be dealt with in advance to avoid losing the mountain gorillas after a long period of conservation.

The funds collected from gorilla trekking permit sale are used from more Research.

When Is the Best time To Book Rwanda Gorilla trekking Permit

You can get the Rwanda gorilla trekking permits anytime but booking it in advance is the best option because they are sold off fast. Rwanda has about 13 gorilla families open for tourists to view each day yet only maximum 8 gorilla permits are allowed for each family.

Finding availability for any of the Rwanda gorilla trekking days is quite challenging because they are highly booked.

First come first served basis is used to acquire Rwanda Permits. The sale off fast because of the high demand worldwide.

Booking your Rwanda Gorilla Trekking Permit at least 6 months in advance to prevent last-minute panic when acquiring permits at the last minute. Although you can get a gorilla permit on the day of trekking, it is disturbing because you are not sure of a no-show.

When you reserve a gorilla permit, you can reserve accommodation too in advance because the availability of accommodation gets used up in case it’s peak tourism season in Rwanda. Choices of where to overnight during gorilla trekking are limited.

What Is the Cost Of Gorilla Trekking In Rwanda

Rwanda gorilla trekking packages are graded according to Luxury, mid-range or budget. The cost of the Rwanda Gorilla permit is the main cost that cuts across all budgets.

Other Costs that make up Rwanda gorilla safari general cost include

The number of people paying For the gorilla trekking safari

The more people booked for gorilla trekking, the less the cost of safari per person. This is because you share some expenses like vehicle hire, gas, driver’s guide, and others. As a solo person going gorilla trekking, bear the entire expense included in the gorilla trekking tour quotation.

Timing of Gorilla trekking safari In Rwanda

When you decide to take gorilla trekking tour in the high season that is June to September or December to January the cost is high. This is because the demand for service providers is high too like vehicle hire, accommodations, driver guides and others. Expect the overall costs to be high.

The low seasons also come with discounted gorilla trekking safari costs like on accommodations, driver guide hire and others. This is because there are less visitors demanding this time. You may get chance of staying at an upmarket facility with a small budget.

Type of Package you choose For Gorilla trekking

When you choose a luxury gorilla trekking package, Mid-range or Budget gorilla trekking package you have to look for the inclusions of each package. The better the gorilla trekking package, the more the inclusion and less exclusions the higher the price of full package.

Number Of days On Gorilla Trekking Safari

The more days you have on gorilla trekking safari the more money you spend. This is because most of the services included in the package are charged per day. The cost of 3 day gorilla trekking in Rwanda is not the same as the cost of 5 days Rwanda gorilla trekking package.

Number of Activities To Combine With Gorilla Trekking

The more activities you add to gorilla trekking in Rwanda the higher the money you spend on holiday.

In Rwanda, you can do chimpanzee trekking, Rwanda birding adventure, Kigali city Tour and others. You must tailor the best itinerary to carter for all these activities in the time you have for the safari.

Gorilla Trekking Times In Rwanda

You can do as many gorilla trekking adventures as you wish to immense yourself in the life of these gentle giants. Every time you do gorilla trekking, you have to buy the permit and attend briefing at the ranger station. Even if you attended briefing yesterday, there may be a change in the behavior of the family you are meeting next. The more times you trek the mountain gorillas, the higher the cost of the entire safari cost.

What Are Rules Of Gorilla Trekking In Rwanda

No spitting on the vegetation when trekking to find the mountain gorillas. This is food for the mountain gorillas because they are vegans in nature. They feed on bamboo, soft stems, leaves, fruits and so much more.
Littering the forest is forbidden because this where vegetation from which mountain gorillas feed thrives. When you dump plastic wraps they prevent water from penetrating the ground where plants thrive. Even alter the nature of the forest with time.
Eating and smoking 200 meters from the mountain gorillas is forbidden because they may be forced to grab what in your hands from you. You do not know the extent of the effect them eating what you gave them may cause. They are wild animals that must fend for there own food in the wilderness.
The Age limit for gorilla trekking is 15 years because the nature of the topography where mountain gorillas thrive is disturbing for a child this age to hike. The time to locate the mountain gorillas is unknown so some level of patience is required.
In case you catch any communicable infection like cough, flu, Cholera, covid-19 and others volunteer to stay behind so that you do not pass it to the mountain gorillas. They are highly susceptible to human infections.
Cover all fecal material in a hole of about 30 cm deep and cover beyond recognition. This is to prevent them from being exhumed by the forest dwellers because it may cause the spread of germs.
If you wish to sneeze or cough, do it away from the mountain gorillas and use a handkerchief to cover your mouth or in the elbow so that you do not release germs into the atmosphere.
When with mountain gorillas, keep your voice low and avoid sudden movements. This is because forest dwellers are used to certain voices and unfamiliar noise in their environment may cause them to rage.
Only 1 hour is allowed with the mountain gorillas when you locate them. this is how long them have been habituated to be in human presence. To allow them go about their day to day activities like feeding, grooming infants, and making babies.
Carry a mask when infront of the mountain gorillas and hand sanitize to prevent passing an infection to these gentle giants. Before taking a certain trail, you have to sanitize your shoes by stepping into sanitized soil provided after the briefing.
Provoking the mountain gorillas is forbidden because you don’t know how the gorillas will perceive your actions. They are very shy primates that are easily agitated by intruders in there vicinity.
Keep a distance of about 8 meters from the mountain gorillas when you locate the mountain gorillas. They are wild animals that may have some infections that they may pass to you and you to them. although they are wild animals, touching them is forbidden.
Using Flash photography is forbidden because mountain gorillas do not like new occurrences in their presence. They may get scared of flashlights and dash into deeper ends of the park.