On the picture H.E. Martijn van Dam Dutch Minister of Agriculture and H.E. Jean Pierre Karabaranga, Ambassador of Rwanda.
RDB, African Parks and the Government of the Netherlands present Wildlife Deal on the reintroduction of black rhinos into Rwanda.
Today, the Rwandan Development Board, African Parks and the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs presented a Wildlife Deal on the reintroduction of black rhinos into Rwanda. This project represents a very prestigious and positive initiative to bring an endangered species back into a safe environment in Rwanda. It restores Akagera National Park to a ‘Big Five’ park and will boost the tourism development in Rwanda.
The Wildlife Deal was presented today on World Wildlife Day at the Save Wildlife Conference in The Hague, the Netherlands. CEO of the Rwanda Development Board, Mr. Francis Gatare, expressed his gratitude to the Dutch Government and African Parks through a video-message and said that the ground-breaking conservation effort to re-introduce seven lions to Akagera last July was a resounding success and raised Akagera’s status among international conservation platforms.
‘The next milestone to achieve is the re-introduction of black rhinos to Akagera and to Rwanda. At this time I would like to express our gratitude for the financial support from the Dutch Government to aiding us in bringing back Rhinos to Rwanda. This would restore Akagera’s status as a ‘Big 5’ park and combined with the parks incredible scenery, huge diversity within a relatively small area, almost 500 species of bird and conservation success story, Akagera is set to become a must-see destination’, said Mr. Gatare.
H.E. Jean Pierre Karabaranga, Ambassador of the Republic of Rwanda to the Netherlands, attended the High-level Round Table session, which was chaired by H.E. Martijn van Dam, chair of the conference and Minister for Agriculture of the Netherlands.
‘The future of wildlife is in our hands and the Government of Rwanda is playing a role in wildlife protection and has demonstrated a strong commitment towards the success of conservation in Rwanda’, said Ambassador Karabaranga after the presentation of the Wildlife Deal. ‘Rwanda is a stable country and, led by President Paul Kagame, has made huge advances in economic development and poverty reduction through a strong vision for the transformation of the country. The Government has the necessary will and conviction for conservation to succeed in Rwanda’.
The Ambassador took the opportunity to, on behalf of the Rwandan Government and the Rwanda Development Board, thank the Dutch Government and African Parks for supporting the various initiatives they undertook to ensure that wildlife has a future in Rwanda.
Since early 2010 African Parks and the Rwanda Development Board agreed to jointly manage Akagera National Park. The management agreement is for an initial term of 20 years, with an option to renew for a further 20 years. It is the goal of the partnership to restore, develop and manage Akagera as a functioning savannah ecosystem through biodiversity rehabilitation, sound conservation practices and tourism development, thereby creating additional benefit for the economy of Rwanda.
Akagera National Park is growing in profile nationally and the successful reintroduction of lion in June 2015 has boosted the park’s conservation status.
Information:
RDB www.rdb.rw
African Parks www.africanparks.eu
Save Wildlife Conference www.safewildlife.nl
