Faustin Gashakamba Joins Gishwati Area Conservation Program

(Gisenyi, Rwanda – March 30, 2011) – Madeleine Nyiratuza, Coordinator of the Gishwati Area Conservation Program (GACP), and Senior Program Advisor Peter Clay announced today the selection of Mr. Faustin Gashakamba as the Program’s Community Engagement Manager (CEM).

“The CEM is our main contact with the citizens of the local communities surrounding the Gishwati Forest in Rwanda’s Western Province and thus is a key to our success,” said Dr. Benjamin Beck, Great Ape Trust’s director of conservation.

Gashakamba will supervise the program’s six ecoguards, be responsible for responding to cases of crop-raiding by chimpanzees and monkeys, and coordinate the activities of 14 school ecoclubs and 10 local cooperatives that work with the program. He is also the program’s point of contact to the area’s Peace Corps volunteer, and will oversee the new ecovisitation experience that will soon be available to tourists. He begins April 1.

“Faustin was clearly the most outstanding in the field of 58 applicants,” said Nyiratuza. “He has excellent GIS skills, and was one of only two candidates to note the value of Twitter and Facebook for local and international communication about the program’s progress.”

Graduating with distinction from the National University of Rwanda in 2009, Gashakamba holds a bachelor of arts degree in geography with a focus on environment and land management. His senior thesis focused on the environmental benefits of “zero-grazing” of cattle. He worked as a language and cross-cultural facilitator with the United States Peace Corps for four months, helping to write the Kinyarwanda language-training manual. Through most of 2010 he supervised a team of 50 people as a Land Tenure Regularization Field Manager for the National Land Centre, and knows well the challenges of working with people and land tenure issues.

Gashakamba describes himself as “an open person, a quick learner, relationship- and team-oriented with excellent communication skills, including working with both communities and media.

“I really look forward to working with the Gishwati program,” he said.

GACP BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Gishwati Area Conservation Program began in late 2007 when H.E. President Paul Kagame and Great Ape Trust and Earthpark Founder Ted Townsend pledged at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting to found a “national conservation park” in Rwanda to benefit climate, biodiversity and the welfare of the Rwandan people. Great Ape Trust is a scientific research center in Des Moines, Iowa and Earthpark is a proposed national center for science-based ecological literacy and immersive learning for students, educators and visitors.

The Gishwati Forest Reserve’s history of deforestation extends over 50 years, in part because of ill-advised large-scale cattle ranching projects, resettlement of refugees after the genocide, inefficient small-plot farming and the establishment of plantations of non-native trees.  As a result, the area has been plagued with catastrophic flooding, erosion, landslides, decreased soil fertility, decreased water quality and heavy river siltation – all of which aggravate a cycle of poverty.