Updated 19 October 2026

Impact of Gorilla Tourism on Local Communities in Uganda Why communities matter to gorilla conservation Bwindi is an island of forest surrounded by some of the most densely farmed land in Uganda, with hundreds of people per square kilometre on the steep hills of Kigezi. Gorilla tourism brings real benefits to the communities around Bwindi and Mgahinga: a share of park revenue for schools, health centres and water projects, jobs as porters, guides and lodge staff, and income from crafts and community walks. It also brings real costs, including crop raiding by wildlife, lost access to the forest and the unresolved displacement of the Batwa. Under Uganda’s revenue-sharing rules, 20% of park entry fees and US$10 from every gorilla permit go to villages bordering the park.

This guide explains how that money is shared, who earns from tourism, where the system falls short and how visitors can make their spending count.

Impact of Gorilla Tourism on Local Communities in Uganda

Why communities matter to gorilla conservation

Bwindi is an island of forest surrounded by some of the most densely farmed land in Uganda, with hundreds of people per square kilometre on the steep hills of Kigezi. When the forest became a national park in 1991, people who had cut timber, mined, hunted, kept bees and collected medicine there lost legal access overnight. Resentment ran high, and in the early years some protested by setting fires in the forest.

The lesson conservationists drew was simple: gorillas would only be safe if the people next to the park gained more from a living forest than from clearing it. Most of what follows, from revenue sharing to porter associations and community lodges, grew out of that idea.

How revenue sharing works

Revenue sharing around Bwindi began in the mid-1990s and is now set out in the Uganda Wildlife Act 2019. There are two parts. Twenty percent of the park entry fees paid by visitors goes to communities, and a gorilla levy of US$10 is added from each gorilla permit sold.

A permit costs US$800 (US$600 in April, May and November), so the levy is a small part of what you pay, but with thousands of permits sold each year it adds up to a significant sum. Only parishes that border the park qualify.

UWA pays the money to the district local governments around the park, which pass it to parish committees. Communities propose projects, and these have included classrooms, health-centre buildings, water tanks and piped water, roads and bridges. More recently much of the money has gone into livelihood projects, such as giving families goats, pigs or tea seedlings, because these reach individual households rather than the village as a whole.

Our guide to responsible tourism in Uganda explains how to choose operators who support this system rather than undercut it.

Where revenue sharing falls short

Researchers who have studied two decades of revenue sharing at Bwindi have found real gains in infrastructure but also familiar weaknesses. Spread across many parishes, the money can be thin per household. Payments have sometimes arrived late. Benefits often go to whole villages, while the costs of crop raiding fall on the particular families whose fields border the forest. Some residents have little say in which projects are chosen, and there have been cases of funds being mismanaged at local level.

Permit fraud has also hurt communities. Investigations in 2023 described permits being sold outside the official system, which means the levy for those treks never reached the community fund. UWA has since tightened its booking controls. Buying your permit through a licensed operator or directly from UWA is the simplest way to make sure your levy is paid.

Jobs and income from tourism

For most families near the park, a job matters more than a shared classroom. Gorilla tourism employs UWA rangers and trackers, many of them recruited locally, and lodges in Buhoma, Ruhija, Rushaga and Nkuringo employ cooks, housekeepers, waiters, guides and security staff. Lodges also buy vegetables, eggs, milk and building materials from nearby farms. Drivers, craft sellers, small shops, guesthouses and boda-boda riders all depend on visitor spending.

Porters are the clearest example. At each trailhead, members of local porter associations carry visitors’ bags and help them on the steep slopes for a set fee, usually about US$15–20, plus a tip. Many porters are young people or parents paying school fees, and some associations include former poachers. Hiring a porter even if you could carry your own bag is one of the most direct ways to put money into a local household.

Community enterprises add more. Village walks in Buhoma, women’s craft cooperatives, the Batwa-led Batwa cultural experience, community-owned lodges and campsites, and Gorilla Conservation Coffee, set up by Conservation Through Public Health with local coffee farmers, all keep more of the money close to the forest.

Health and education

Tourism also supports services that were once missing. Bwindi Community Hospital in Buhoma grew from a 2003 outreach clinic into a full hospital and nursing school, funded largely by donors and visitors. Conservation Through Public Health trains village health volunteers who promote hygiene and family planning and watch for diseases that could pass between people and gorillas. Several lodges fund schools, scholarships or clean-water projects. Our guide to volunteering around Bwindi describes these organisations.

The costs communities still carry

Living next to the park is not easy. Baboons, bushpigs and monkeys raid crops, and gorillas themselves sometimes leave the forest to eat bananas and eucalyptus bark on farms, especially around Nkuringo and Buhoma. Farmers rarely receive compensation. To reduce conflict, UWA and its partners have trained volunteer HuGo (Human-Gorilla Conflict Resolution) teams who guide gorillas back into the park without harming them, planted buffer zones of tea and other crops that wildlife does not eat, and built trenches and stone walls in some areas.

The deepest grievance is that of the Batwa, the forest people evicted from Bwindi and Mgahinga in 1991 with little or no compensation. Many remain landless and poorer than their Bakiga neighbours, and their share of tourism benefits has been small. Batwa-led tourism, land-purchase programmes and advocacy groups have helped some families, but the issue is far from resolved.

Has it worked?

By the most important measure, largely yes. Bwindi’s gorilla population has grown steadily since the 1990s, and the forest boundary has held against heavy population pressure around it. Snaring and illegal entry still happen, but attitudes to the park are far more positive than in the 1990s, and many households now see tourism as their best hope of a cash income. The benefits are uneven, though, and families who carry the costs of crop raiding or who lost forest land often see little of the money.

How visitors can help

Buy your permit through official channels, hire a porter and tip your trackers and guides fairly. Stay at lodges that invest in local communities and employ local staff, and spend money in village enterprises rather than only inside the lodge. Buy crafts directly from the people who make them; our guide to fair-trade crafts near Bwindi lists good places to shop. A community walk or the Batwa experience, booked on the afternoon after your trek, puts money straight into local hands.

Frequently asked questions