Kyambura Community Projects

Protecting The Lost Chimpanzees of the Kyambura Gorge

The Kyambura Gorge Eco-tourism Project

The Kyambura Gorge Eco-tourism Project has undertaken a series of activities since 2009 to safeguard the Kyambura Gorge ecosystem.
Today, Volcanoes Safaris and Volcanoes Safaris Partnership Trust are the single largest stakeholders in the Gorge ecosystem after the Ugandan Wildlife Authority. Without the intervention of Volcanoes Safaris and VSPT, the survival of the gorge and chimps would be under severe threat.

Through these activities and the strategic assembling of four adjoining sites next to the Gorge over the last ten years, the VSPT helps to link Kyambura Gorge Lodge to the local community and promotes sustainable eco-tourism and conservation in one of the most important areas for avian, primate and wildlife biodiversity in Africa.

Initiatives include not only those listed below but also a series of smaller projects with the local schools, teaching them of the benefits of tourism and the natural value of the wildlife diversity in the area. The project is the first of its kind in the area and is an example of the pioneering work conducted by the VSPT.

Partnership with the Jane Goodall Institute Uganda

In 2021 VSPT announced a long term partnership with the Jane Goodall Institute Uganda for supporting the threatened chimpanzee population at Kyambura Gorge. In collaboration with the Uganda Wildlife Authority the partnership significantly reinforces community-led conservation and ecotourism development centred around the Kyambura Gorge landscape in the Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda.

The partnership focuses on the following key objectives:

Expanding community outreach programs through the JGI Roots & Shoots program and the VSPT Community Centre
Enlarging the Kyambura wildlife buffer zone to protect chimpanzee habitat
Developing further ecotourism activities
Diversifying local livelihoods and improving smart crop husbandry
Evaluating the feasibility of connecting the chimpanzees in Kyambura gorge to a neighbouring forest