Rwanda marked the 21st edition of Kwita Izina with the ground-breaking of the Smart Green Village, part of the Volcanoes Community Resilience Project and Rwanda’s long-term vision for the restoration and expansion of Volcanoes National Park. The initiative is designed to ensure communities surrounding Rwanda’s national parks benefit directly from conservation and tourism-driven growth.
The wider programme includes plans to expand Volcanoes National Park by approximately 3,740 hectares and establish around 6,620 hectares of buffer zones, creating additional habitat for Rwanda’s growing mountain gorilla population. The project is expected to improve livelihoods for more than 17,000 people across approximately 3,400 households while reducing human-wildlife conflict by 80 per cent. Rwanda also celebrated 21 years of Kwita Izina in 2026, with 22 baby mountain gorillas named during the annual conservation ceremony. Read the Rwanda Development Board announcement.