Mountain Gorillas - Wildlife Conservation Network

Enabling People and Gorillas to Coexist

When you support Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH), you help enable people, gorillas, and other wildlife to coexist through improving their health and livelihoods in and around Africa’s protected areas and wildlife rich habitats.

Donate Now

CTPH recognizes the interdependence of ecosystem health.

Since disease transfer between humans and gorillas was first documented with scabies in the 1990s, Conservation Through Public Health has been focused on the interdependence of these closely genetically related species.

Mountain Gorillas are tremendously strong, social, beings.

Unfortunately, forest degradation and disease transmission threaten the remaining 1,000+ wild mountain gorillas.

Find out more

Promoting conservation, public health, and poverty alleviation.

CTPH takes on a multidisciplinary approach to prevent human-wildlife disease transmission, and promote a better quality of life that reduces local communities’ dependence on fragile habitats to meet their basic needs.

Find out more

Mountain Gorillas are tremendously strong, social, beings.

Unfortunately, forest degradation and disease transmission threaten the remaining 1,000+ wild mountain gorillas.

Find out more

Promoting conservation, public health, and poverty alleviation.

Find out more

Mountain gorillas, with their muscular arms, massive chest, and broad hands and feet, can eat over 40 pounds of vegetation each day. They live in social groups of 2-40, led by the silverback, a dominant male that is the family leader and protector, stronger than most American football players.

But as forest habitat is fragmented and people move closer to these endangered apes, they also bring the risk of disease transfer and human-wildlife conflict. Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH) is working to protect the around 1,000 mountain gorillas remaining in the wild.

Founded by Uganda’s first wildlife veterinarian, Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, CTPH implements three integrated strategic programs to promote biodiversity conservation by improving animal health, community health and providing alternative livelihood opportunities which, in turn, reduce threats to wildlife and their habitats. To prevent the spread of zoonotic diseases between humans, gorillas, and livestock, CTPH employs veterinarians and medical professionals to monitor and treat community members, livestock and wildlife around Uganda’s national parks. Their team constantly monitors gorilla groups; campaigns to reduce illegal poaching; and helps communities develop alternative livelihoods that foster coexistence and do not endanger gorilla populations. This One Health model ensures that all life within these shared ecosystems remains balanced.

Conservation Solutions

Boosting Local Economies

Guiding Policy

Honoring Culture

Reducing Conflict

CTPH trains hundreds of HuGos (Human and Gorilla Conflict Resolution Teams) – also known as Gorilla Guardians – to help resolve human-wildlife conflict whenever mountain gorillas stray from the safety of the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park boundaries and enter into community land or gardens. These volunteers safely herd gorillas back to the forest. Beyond conflict resolution, Gorilla Guardians have also been trained in clinic observation of gorillas, monitoring the signs and symptoms of potential disease transmission among people, and from people to mountain gorillas, including COVID-19. Gorilla Guardians are also trained to collect gorilla fecal samples when gorillas come to community gardens for analysis to help check for diseases and/or parasites people could be sharing with gorillas and livestock.

Promoting Health

CTPH’s “One Health” approach jointly addresses human, animal, and whole ecosystem health by bringing together multidisciplinary actors including veterinarians, medical and public health professionals, and environmental conservationists. CTPH’s community volunteers “Village Health and Conservation Teams” (VHCTs) are trained to deliver integrated community based public health information and services to promote good health-seeking behavior, hygiene practices, infectious disease prevention and control, family planning, nutrition, and conservation education to individual households. CTPH focuses especially on engaging women as they are primarily responsible for their families’ health and wellbeing and are, therefore, in the best position to make positive changes for improved household health.

Scientific Research

CTPH’s team carries out routine gorilla health monitoring through non-invasive gorilla fecal sample collection from gorilla night nests, from all the 22 habituated gorilla groups of Uganda’s Bwindi and Mgahinga Conservation Area. Their field team has collected thousands of gorilla fecal samples, which are analyzed at CTPH’s on-site field laboratory, the Gorilla Health and Community Conservation Center, to identify any diseases gorillas could be sharing with people and/or livestock living in proximity to the gorilla habitat. The samples are consistently analyzed for potential respiratory infections, parasites, and viruses, including SARS-COV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

Expanding Education

CTPH set up the Bwindi Impenetrable Kids League with support from The Hodgkinson Family in England, UK, to motivate children to learn about conservation and health through sports. Through a partnership with The Kids League (TKL), CTPH organizes football and netball tournaments at Bwindi Impenetrable National Park with the goal of improving youth community engagement in conservation. CTPH develops conservation education curriculum, provides lessons to the participants, and oversees the tournaments. Teams are named after Bwindi’s famous primates such as gorilla, baboon, and Galago. We started off with four schools in 2012 at Buhoma village in Mukono Parish, Kayonza Sub County. In 2017, with support from Disney Conservation Fund, CTPH expanded the Kids League to five additional schools in Mpungu Parish.

Empowering Women

When CTPH’s founder Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka became the first wildlife vet at Uganda Wildlife Authority in 1996, she realized there were very few women rangers or in senior positions. This encouraged her to mentor more women to break historical biases in the conservation field. One of CTPH’s main goals is to train and empower Ugandan women to take up leadership and entrepreneurial roles in their communities, elevate their status, and support improved gender balance. Engaging more women has led to improved reception and implementation of conservation efforts through family planning, nutrition, hygiene, and well-being.

Boosting Local Economies

Gorilla Conservation Coffee is CTPH’s social enterprise which pays a premium, above market price to marginalized smallholder coffee farmers living around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. This helps farmers to improve their family’s well-being and reduce pressure on local natural resources. Gorilla Conservation Coffee works across the value chain: first by directly training farmers to improve sustainable agricultural practices, next by purchasing the coffee product, processing and packaging it, and marketing for sale to local businesses, tourists, international distributors, and online at gorillaconservationcoffee.org. $1.5 per kilo of coffee purchased is donated to sustain the conservation efforts of CTPH.

Guiding Policy

CTPH believes government partnerships are critical for an integrated approach to human health and environmental conservation. The team works closely with the Uganda Wildlife Authority and other government partners to advocate for One Health approaches to be institutionalized into regional, national, and multilateral level policies. During the COVID-19 pandemic, CTPH and International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP) developed a Great Apes policy brief with a network of African based NGOs to advocate for priority testing and vaccination of park staff coming into close contact with great apes like gorillas, bonobos and chimpanzees, and to clarify new tourism protocols, including mandatory use of face masks.

Honoring Culture

CTPH recognizes that protecting Bwindi’s habitat requires a holistic and participatory approach with indigenous stakeholders, specifically with the native Batwa community. For millennia the Batwa resided in the mountain forests of Bwindi, until they were evicted from its boundaries upon its declaration as a national park. Unfortunately, the Batwa people have continually been marginalized by lack of access to health, jobs, property, discrimination and stigmatization. CTPH teams help Batwa communities to improve health and sanitation systems, introduce income-generating projects, and ensure Batwa are included in conservation efforts to protect the area’s natural and cultural heritage.

Boosting Local Economies

Guiding Policy

Honoring Culture

You are Making an Impact for Gorillas

When you get involved, donate, or spread the word on social media, you are truly making a better world for gorillas and the communities that live alongside them. Here’s a few ways you can help:

Connect with Conservation Through Public Health on social media to learn more about their work and be a voice for mountain gorillas.

Visit the Conservation Through Public Health’s website and sign up for their newsletter to deepen your connection with conservation.
VISIT WEBSITE

You can also help by purchasing Gorilla Conservation Coffee, staying at the CTPH Gorilla Conservation Camp Lodge outside of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, or volunteering, interning, and helping with research.

Donate to support their work protecting gorillas in the wild. Through our donation model, 100% of your donation goes to field with zero taken for overhead or administration.

To protect the health of the gorillas, it is also important to improve and protect the health of the people around them.

Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, CEO

Photography Credits: Ryoma Otsuka, Nick Penny, Conservation Through Public Health

Conservation Through Public Health

Enabling People and Gorillas to Coexist

CTPH recognizes the interdependence of ecosystem health.

Mountain Gorillas are tremendously strong, social, beings.

Promoting conservation, public health, and poverty alleviation.

Mountain Gorillas are tremendously strong, social, beings.

Promoting conservation, public health, and poverty alleviation.

Species Impact

Team Values