By Catherine Namanya 

As Uganda joins the rest of the world to mark World Gorilla Day that falls every September 24, the country’s mountain gorilla conservation journey stands out as a story of long-term protection, scientific research, law enforcement, tourism and growing community participation.

In Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, the gorilla population has risen from historically low numbers to 459 individuals according to the last conducted census in 2018. This figure remains an important benchmark, as we wait for the 2025/2026 latest genetic DNA analysis results to be released.

The recovery has been built over decades through sustained protection of the gorillas and their forest habitat. In 1992, the first census was conducted in Bwindi and 300 mountain gorillas were recorded, increasing to about 320 in 2002, 340 in 2006 and 459 in 2018. Together with the Virunga census results of 2015, the Bwindi census results of 2018 brought the global total population of mountain gorillas to 1,063 individuals.

As a result of this, a major international milestone was achieved for the first time in the history of Uganda’s mountain gorilla conservation when International Union for Conservation of Nature [IUCN] removed the mountain gorilla’s conservation status from the red list of Critically Endangered to only Endangered list following population recovery and coordinated conservation efforts.

Nelson Enyagu, an Ecological Monitoring and Research Officer with Uganda Wildlife Authority in Bwindi, says law enforcement, ecological monitoring, veterinary interventions, research and community engagement have all played a vital role of the conservation response.

“One of the efforts that UWA has put on ground is law enforcement. There has been an increasing number of patrols, according to the data, which has yielded a reduction in poaching entirely in these protected areas,” Enyagu said.

He adds that technology is also playing a vital role in monitoring the mountain gorillas -  trackers use smartphones, GPS and monitoring systems to record locations, movements and health conditions, allowing conservation managers to obtain geo-referenced information for planning and responding to emerging threats.

Enyagu calls upon universities and researchers to produce studies that directly address practical conservation challenges.

“Bwindi is a very fragile ecosystem, and research is very important, especially in regard to climate change. I advise academic institutions and researchers to come up with appropriate research topics that can inform management decisions, other than just doing research for the sake of graduation,” he noted.

The future of these mountain gorillas also depends deeply partnerships and regional cooperation as they occupy the Greater Virunga landscape which is shared by Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo making it a shared conservation responsibility.

Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, founder and CEO of Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH), one of the key partners that joined the gorilla conservation journey in Uganda in 1996 as Uganda’s first wildlife veterinarian with UWA says, working in Bwindi, one of the most significant experiences was a scabies outbreak among gorillas, which highlighted the risk of disease transmission between people and wildlife.

Kalema says the experience convinced her that protecting gorillas could not be separated from improving the health and livelihoods of surrounding communities and that’s why she founded the Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH) organization in 2003, developing a “One Health” approach that links human health, wildlife health and environmental conservation. CTPH continues to work with UWA through disease surveillance, gorilla health monitoring, community health education and conservation initiatives.

The work has also increasingly moved beyond protecting gorillas inside the forest to addressing the relationship between wildlife and communities surrounding Bwindi. Communities have benefited through employment as UWA staff, porters, guides and other tourism workers, as well as through livelihood and projects developments. UWA shares 20 percent of its annual park revenue with communities surrounding protected areas.

In June 2025, UWA disbursed Shs2.197 billion in revenue-sharing funds to communities around the Bwindi-Mgahinga Conservation Area, with the money intended to support local development projects and strengthen community participation in conservation.

Uganda Wildlife Authority also works closely with other partners like; International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP), Bwindi Mgahinga Conservation Trust (BMCT), Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project/Gorilla Doctors, Institute of Tropical Forest Conservation (ITFC), Gorilla Organization (GO), Human-Gorilla Conflict Resolution (HUGO) teams and the Greater Virunga Transboundary Collaboration (GVTC), who have greatly strengthened the protection of mountain gorillas and their habitat.