00:05For Patrice Evra, this is unfamiliar territory, the former Manchester United and France captain
00:11arrives at Volcanoes National Park, where guide Gentile Torreo takes him through the
00:15rules before his first encounter with...
00:18I'm really excited, I feel blessed and grateful and I can't wait, I can't wait to see them
00:26and I hope I won't be too much stubborn listening to the rules, you know, I know you can't look
00:32at them in the eyes.
00:33Evra praised Rwanda's conservation efforts saying other African countries should take an example for the country,
00:40but every new...
00:41Evra comes face to face with the mountain gorillas, part of a population whose recovery
00:46has become one of Africa's conservation success stories.
00:50Every year over 50,000 tourists visit Volcanoes National Park,
00:53leaving behind millions of dollars and impacting surrounding communities.
00:58Gentile knows that impact firsthand, a guide since 2015, he has seen...
01:03When we go to reporters, most of them, the old ones, they used to be poachers back in the past
01:07because they were doing so many illegal activities in this national park before
01:12some serious measures have been taken into conservation.
01:16Yeah.
01:16And now they benefit a lot from tourism because instead of benefiting from the bush meat and
01:22collecting firewood and other stuff, they are now benefiting out of tourism.
01:26Fast forward for Friday, and Evra is back in Tuniti.
01:30This time, before thousands attending Rwanda's annual critis in a gorilla,
01:35conservationists say the need is increasingly urgent.
01:38The expansion will provide more habitats for growing mountain gorilla families.
01:44At the same time, it will support neighboring communities through better housing,
01:52infrastructure, services, and new economic opportunities.
02:03More gorilla groups are competing for limited territory, while animals moving outside the park
02:09can come into conflict with the neighboring farmers. But the expansion is also being pitched
02:14as an economic investment.
02:16If everything is done well and according to our plan, we are expecting an increase in income
02:21by 30 percent from the community around, creation of sustainable jobs, and also we are expecting
02:28in terms of conservation, an increase in mountain gorilla population around 10 to 15 percent,
02:34an increase in also gorilla experience and tourism as an outcome of this program.
02:39In this program, he names one of the newest arrivals and expands Volcano's national park by roughly
02:453,740 hectares. The gorilla arrival also underlines the challenge ahead.
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