Mountain Gorilla Numbers Keep Climbing as Ranger Tech Helps Beat the Odds

In the 1980s, the future of the mountain gorilla looked desperate. Hunting, habitat loss and civil unrest in the volcanic forests where Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo meet had pushed the great apes toward extinction. Yet against tremendous odds, the mountain gorilla has become one of the most heartening conservation success stories on the planet — its population climbing from around 480 individuals in 2010 to an estimated 1,063 today, a 73 percent rise since 1989.

That growth was strong enough that in 2018 the species was reclassified from critically endangered to endangered — a step in the right direction that few would have predicted a generation ago. The entire population lives within the Greater Virunga Landscape, spread across Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park, Uganda’s Mgahinga and Bwindi parks, and the DRC’s Virunga National Park and Sarambwe Nature Reserve.

“Hunting, habitat loss and civil unrest in the volcanic forests where Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo meet had pushed the great apes toward extinction.”

A key part of the recent progress is a digital tool with an unassuming name: SMART, the Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool. Deployed since 2012 and now used by at least 1,400 rangers across the three parks, SMART lets patrol teams record wildlife sightings, signs of poaching and habitat threats in the field, then transmit the data to the cloud in real time. With GPS navigation, photo documentation and analysis built in, it helps managers spot patterns and direct patrols where they are needed most. As International Gorilla Conservation Programme field officer Eustrate Uzabaho put it, every patrol now “informs the field teams about the threats in order to make plans and draw strategies to overcome these challenges.”

The gains have been hard-won. Rangers face snare-setting bushmeat hunters, logging, farming pressure and the threat of infant trafficking, and more than 200 rangers have died in Virunga National Park alone. Backed by groups including the International Gorilla Conservation Programme, WWF, the Wildlife Conservation Society and TRAFFIC, those rangers are the front line of a remarkable recovery. Their courage — now amplified by smart technology and transboundary cooperation — is helping ensure that the gentle giants of the Virunga forests keep growing in number for years to come.