FEATURE
Coffee Conserving Mountain Gorillas in Bwindi
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, best known for its Mountain Gorillas, with just under half of the World’s estimated 1063 remaining endangered Mountain Gorillas, is also home to Gorilla Conservation Coffee, Uganda’s only premium and specialty coffee expressly created to protect the magnificent Mountain Gorillas. Gorilla Conservation Coffee was established in 2015 as a social enterprise of Conservation Through Public Health, a grassroots Ugandan NGO and non-profit, which promotes biodiversity 28 | NDEGE NEWS MARCH - MAY 2022
conservation by enabling people, gorillas and other wildlife to coexist through improving their health and livelihoods in and around Africa’s protected areas. Surrounding Bwindi Impenetrable National Park are isolated and impoverished communities, with limited access to health services and very few livelihood opportunities. Due to their close proximity both inside and outside the national park, preventable infectious diseases, including COVID-19, can easily spread between humans and gorillas. This, along with illegal entry
into the forest in search of food or fuelwood, is threatening the existence of the mountain gorillas. Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH) works to address the threats to mountain gorillas, including by providing alternative, sustainable livelihood options for the community members living in proximity to the gorillas. Gorilla Conservation Coffee is one such alternative livelihood which provides coffee farmers living adjacent to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest with a guaranteed market and higher price for their coffee.
