AKAGERA FENCE COMPLETION NOW EXPECTED BY APRIL
The fencing work to separate the park from the farms of neighbouring communities bordering, which has been carried out by African Parks, the joint venture partner of RDB Tourism and Conservation managing the national park, is now expected to be complete by the end of March or early April this year.
An area of previously intense human / wildlife conflict, a fence was seen as the only viable solution to protect small scale farmers from buffalo and hippos often straying outside the park boundaries, and in many cases causing crop destruction and even injuries, at times death to people, the most recent only two weeks ago.
Presently just over 81 kilometres of the 110 kilometre long fence are complete, leaving open however nearly 30 kilometres of open boundaries where game still roams at will. The delay in completion of the fencing is largely attributed to boundary issues with local communities which needed fresh demarcation and lengthy processes of community consultations which are now, according to a Kigali based source, concluded. Akagera is Rwanda’s only savannah national park located in the East of the country offering a complete safari experience after visiting the Parc de Volcanoes near Ruhengeri for the tracking of gorillas or the fabled ‘enchanted’ forest national park of Nyungwe in the South of the country. Visit www.rwandatourism.com for more information about the parks and how to get there, but also about the tourism attractions outside the parks like birding trails and the increasingly popular Congo-Nile Trail.
