Dian Fossey believed in active conservation and took the poachers head on. The Dian Fossey Gorilla fund International, established with this same ideology, takes conservation and protection of gorillas and their habitat in Africa their main aim.

Some of the Most Important Activities

The Fund was later expanded to promote continued research on the gorillas and their threatened ecosystems and also to educate not only the locals, but also people all around the world more about the gorillas and their habitat.

To protect the gorillas from poaching, loss of habitat and disease, the Fossey fund funded guards to do tracking and anti-poaching patrols. This helps to curb the activities of poachers and prevent habitat destruction. The patrols also remove snares and traps which gorillas get caught in. Each year, around 1000 snares were found and removed. the poachers caught were also being brought to justice.

In addition to that, charcoal producing operations, which cause major damage to the Virungas ecosystem as the large trees are cut down, have been shut down.

Gorillas who were rescued from poachers were also being rehabilitated and prepared to return them to the wild with the fund that supports the rehabilitation of the Maiko National Park and several community-managed reserves.

Scientific research were being conducted by the fund on the Virungas ecosystem and the gorillas, keeping track of the population numbers and make notes on the behavioural characteristics of the Mountain Gorillas.

Children of Rwanda. Credit: Flickr User: Philip Kromer

Educating the local community on the value of conservation and also improving their living conditions helped the locals to be their own stewards of their natural environment which directly affects the gorillas as they are the ones sharing the same environment.

They now also recognises the importance of wildlife tourism that Dian Fossey strongly opposed to when she was alive. This recognition will help to maintain a stable and sustainable local community so that they could continue to protect both their gorillas and their habitat.

The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International works closely with the Karisoke Research Center which Dian Fossey founded in 1967.