Discussion

Let's Compare Research

Although there are so many negative consequences of war, some argue that war can actually help conservation efforts. War brings awareness to what a nation has so that it knows what to protect. Rwanda is a nation that has prided itself on the biodiversity it holds within its reserves and to lose that to war would be a huge blow to the nation's economy because it is what pulls people to come visit and spend their money there every year. This may be the case with the mountain gorillas in Volcanoes National Park because gorilla populations were actually increasing as the civil war and genocide began. This was most likely due to heightened military response, especially within the park because it shared borders with Uganda and the DRC. The borders of the park were well maintained throughout the time of conflict in Rwanda, however when studying the borders of the park that lie in Uganda, the borders weren't so clear cut, meaning they weren't as patrolled or maintained (Kanyamibwa, 1998). Rwanda made a clear and conscious effort to protect its Volcanoes National Park and it paid off in the end as vegetation cover remained fairly steady and as mountain gorilla populations are slowly rising.

Limitations

Lack of consistent data due to violence.

It is unsafe for researchers to go into the Volcanoes National Park while there is conflict going on in Rwanda because they may get caught in the cross fire between rebels and military, they may stumble upon land mines, they may not even be allowed to enter for their own safety. Also these gorillas live in remote locations within the park and even getting to the locations without possibly running into trouble is a high risk. There are rebels who are out to prove a point as well as poachers who see researchers as hindering their opportunity to catch their target prey.

Extremely thick cloud cover.

Trying to create a time series for Rwanda proved to be a little difficult because a majority of the year there was extremely high percentage of cloud cover blocking the satellites' view of the park. This is expected however because of the significantly different climate within the park than that of the surrounding areas. There were only a handful of images that were clear enough to use for comparisons over time.

Unavailable data.

Although there is a lot of satellite data on the Volcanoes National Park, a lot of it was not available for download, but for purchase, which my student wallet definitely couldn't afford.

Useful Data

The most useful data I obtained was all of the clear Landsat images of the park over time as well as the tables and graphs on population data of both Rwandans and gorillas. Being able to find data that covered the same time frame really helped in connecting the dots and finding correlations between nature and humans. Many of the journal articles also helped to provide information on what was going on while rates of deforestation and poaching were rising and falling.

Future Research

I think the most effective future research would be to see what has worked in the past to help sustain the mountain gorilla populations and their habitats such as ecotourism. Ecotourism was a huge pull for revenue in Rwanda prior to the civil war because of the rare mountain gorillas they housed in the Volcanoes National Park. I think research to see how rates of ecotourism and rates of conservation correlate would be highly beneficial to Rwanda.