Our Goal
The program targets the Virunga Landscape, a region that straddles Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) . This is a densely populated, mountainous area where livelihoods of local people are largely dependent on agricultural production and natural resources.
At the heart of this landscape are the natural forests of the Virunga Volcanoes that lie on the borders of the Rwanda, Uganda, and DRC, and the large Bwindi forest. These forests make a major contribution to local livelihoods: they regulate the water cycle across a large catchment. They are protected as national parks: Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda; Parc National de Virunga in DRC; and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park and Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda. These forests are the habitat of the mountain gorillas. Mountain gorilla tourism and associated enterprises generate revenues for the three countries and the neighboring population.
The EEEGL program is designed as five year initiative and commenced in January 2007. It seeks to achieve the following objective by the end of Year five:
Increased livelihood opportunities based on sustainable use of natural resources, and improved governance of these resources, have made a substantial contribution to poverty reduction and environmental conservation in the Virunga landscape of the transboundary region of Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in particular benefiting the more marginalized and vulnerable groups in the population of this region.
