Through a mobile phone-based application, Ugandans and foreign visitors now have a chance to navigate to Mountain Gorilla hosting national parks.
To see the Mountain Gorillas in the past, visitors had to physically visit the Mgahinga and Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in southwestern Uganda.
To reach those that may not be able to physically visit the Parks, Uganda Wildlife Authority(UWA) unveiled another option using digital technology.
“Those wishing to have a glimpse of the iconic Mountain Gorilla will have to subscribe to an application known as “My Gorilla Family” Sam Mwanda, the UWA Executive Director said.
What “my gorilla family” will offer?
- It will offer an interactive portal where subscribers can virtually access daily gorilla excursions and track family migrations using their cell phones.
- They will also receive real-time updates on special events, such as new births, from the rangers.
- The application available on iOS and Android phone users offers what he described as an unprecedented opportunity for individuals to virtually track a gorilla family.
According to Mwanda, the new innovation was out of some of the lessons the authority learned from the Covid-19 lockdown.
visitors to the two National parks were restricted for fear that the visiting humans would pass the virus to the Gorillas during the COVID-19 lockdown during the COVID-19 lockdown. “the new innovation is part of the efforts by the Authority to generate more revenue to run the national parks.” He says.
“The application is a result of a public-private partnership between UWA and the House of Gorilla Initiative (HoG). The proceeds will be shared between the two entities.” According to Mwanda
“This application is expected to increase the revenue mobilized from gorilla tourism, as it will be more widely spread and convenient for a larger number of people” He added
He continuously said that the gorillas contribute up to 70 percent of our revenue collections. Despite collecting up to 120 billion shillings in total, we do not have enough money. Therefore, we had to find a more strategic way to market gorillas to bring in more revenue since they are our premium product.
In Uganda, Bwindi impenetrable national park and mgahinga national park are homes to half of the world’s remaining population of gorillas, and they have long been a major tourist attraction in the protected areas
“Apart from generating revenue, the application will improve the country’s conservation efforts and keep up with global trends in tourism marketing.” Lilly Ajarova, the Chief Executive Officer of the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB), said
Uganda’s indigenous tech-meets-conservation initiative showcases humanity’s role in safeguarding nature.
It demonstrates Uganda’s commitment to biodiversity preservation and creates an intentional community dedicated to saving this endangered species and its habitat
“The innovation aims to find alternative funding for gorilla conservation. He believes that more people will be on board through this app, leading to increased collections. He added that it took up to one year to develop the app.” David Gonahasa, the co-founder of HoG, stated
“Cameras have been installed in the forests to capture the data required to consistently feed information to the application. He also mentioned that they are aiming to raise USD 380,000 to ensure the efficient functioning of the application, and the subscription fee is 2 dollars per month.” according to Gonahasa.
