Rwandan Biologist Promoted to Research Manager of Gishwati Area Conservation Program

(Gisenyi, Rwanda – January 26, 2011) - Madeleine Nyiratuza, coordinator of the Gishwati Area Conservation Program (GACP), announced today that Sylvain Nyandwi had assumed new responsibilities as research manager for the program’s chimpanzee field study. Nyandwi will lead a six-person field research team, coordinate daily tracking, collate and digitize all data and field observations, and manage the GACP’s field station in the village of Kinihira, adjacent to the Gishwati Forest in the highlands of western Rwanda.

“Sylvain Nyandwi is a dedicated employee whose performance has contributed significantly to our success since he was hired in September 2008,” said Nyiratuza. “His much-appreciated ability to manage the field research team under his previous position of research assistant demonstrates his strong leadership.”

The chimpanzee field study, which focuses on ecology and behavior, began in June 2007 under the direction of Dr. Rebecca Chancellor. As the principal investigator for the chimpanzee research, Chancellor supervised collection of detailed data on the chimpanzees’ movements in the forest, the foods they ate, and their nest site selection, as well as detailed data on the annual flowering and fruiting cycles of trees and plants in the Gishwati Forest.

Nyandwi has been Chancellor’s chief research assistant at GACP since the beginning of the study. He mastered all of the detailed research protocols and learned to use global positioning systems (GPS), remote self-activated cameras (camera traps), and computerized data management systems. Although Chancellor recently returned to the United States upon completion of her two-year post-doctoral fellowship, she continues to serve as principal investigator and will continue to oversee the scientific program.

“Sylvain is a natural leader and skilled biologist who has continually demonstrated his ability to excel as research manager of the Gishwati Area Conservation Program,” said Chancellor. “He has spent many hours in the forest and field station helping me with data collection and management and has proven to have the energy and aptitude to do this job well. I’m looking forward to working with him in this new capacity.”

Nyandwi, 30, graduated with a Bachelor of Science from the National University of Rwanda in 2007, having completed his senior thesis on the effects of human disturbance on the nesting behavior of the Gishwati Forest chimpanzees.

He looks forward to “using the experience I got from these two last years in this program under supervisor Dr. Rebecca” to succeed in his new position, and is confident that “this will help me to keep pushing into the career of being a good biologist.”

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.