The research was conducted in Kinigi Sector at two different places namely: Gorilla Guardian Village and Rwanda Tourism Information Center located in the Northern Province of Rwanda, specifically in Musanze District; the Rwanda’s most mountainous district, containing the largest part of the Volcanoes National Park. Five of the eight volcanoes of the Virunga chain (Karisimbi, Bisoke, Sabyinyo, Gahinga and Muhabura) are within the district boundaries. The District capital serves as a hub for tourists. Kinigi Sector is adjacent to the Volcanoes National Park, which is the habitat of the rare endangered mountain gorillas (Rwanda’s current leading foreign exchange earner) and other wildlife species including the golden monkeys, buffaloes, elephants and bamboo trees which have been threatened by poachers whose majority are from local communities living near the park. The population census of 2012 indicated that the sector was populated by 27,221 people on the total area of 80.7 Km² and the population density of 337.2/km².

Kinigi Sector is subdivided into 5 cells (Kaguhu, Bisate, Nyonirimia, Nyabigoma and Kampanga), Figure 1 and forty villages commonly called imidugudu. Its administrative office is located in Nyagisenyi Village in Nyonirima Cell. Its boundaries are limited in the North by the Volcanoes National Park, in the South and the East by Nyange Sector and in the West by Shingiro Sector, the Volcanoes National Park’s Head Office is located in Kinigi Sector.

The area experiences seasonal temperature variations with the highest temperatures occurring during the dry season and the coldest occur during the rainy season. The average maximum temperature ranges between 22˚C - 26˚C while

the average minimum temperature ranges between 10˚C - 15˚C, which is dispersed over four main seasons: a short dry season from January to March, a short rainy season from March to May, characterized by torrential rainfall, a long dry season from June to August and a long rainy season from September to December. It experiences typical tropical climate which is characterized by high annual rainfall of up to 1500 mm per year for the northwest volcanic areas (William, 2018).

Selection of sample size from 45 members of Gorilla Guardian Village and 40 staff of Rwanda Tourism Information Center was done through the use of Slovin’s formula (Slovin, 1960).

n = N 1 + N ( e ) 2 (1)

n = Sample size;

N = Population size;

e = Error tolerance.

With confidence level of 99% which gives a confidence coefficient of 0. 99 and a margin error of 0.1, with this formula, a sample size of 59 respondents was selected, Table 1. On the other side, 6 local authorities were selected (1 Executive Secretary of Kinigi Sector and 5 Executive Secretaries of five Cells of this Sector).

During the data collection, the techniques such as field visit and observation, group discussions, and self-administered questionnaire were used. Data related to the poachers and snares trends were collected from the Rwanda Development Board (RDB). Descriptive research design was applied to gather data from the sample size of 65 respondents who were randomly selected from three categories of study populations (Gorilla Guardian Village, Local authorities and Tourism Information Center) of 91 people. The data were treated statistically with SPSS Software.

Based on the research findings, the main causes of poaching and other illegal activities are not the same; some people reported poverty and culture as the main causes while others focused on human wildlife conflict, Table 2, previous research confirmed various reasons of poaching in the entire world (Beck et al., 2019). Poverty, ignorance (low level of education and lack of awareness), culture, poor management of wildlife natural habitats, population growth of citizens versus land availability, corruption, and weakness of nations in terms of law enforcement of the wildlife trafficking are the major causes, Table 2, this has been confirmed with previous research (Beck et al., 2019).

Contrary, the situation is opposite in some countries like China and North America where, poaching is mostly done with the influences of the richest people for commercial purposes, trophies, and pleasure (Collins & Kays, 2011). The situation in other countries, poverty and poor job opportunities have pushed local people in harvesting wildlife and performing other illegal activities in the protected areas as their sources of income. For the major causes of poaching activities, the reality is that they are not the same in both developed and developing countries (Knapp et al., 2017).

For the current situation of wildlife conservation in the Volcanoes National Park, the research results indicated that the wildlife conservation measures undertaken by the Rwandan Government, have been fruitful and at present, poaching activities in the park have reduced clearly where from 2018, the number of snares removed from the Volcanoes National Park reduced from above 1000 snares to 600 snares (Figure 2).

In Shingiro Sector, the numbers of poachers recorded are still high compared to other sectors adjacent to the Volcanoes National Park and the reason for these high poaching activities is related to high population of BASANGWABUTAKA whose majority are uneducated people and consider poaching in their culture. This sector is also located nearby the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where, wildlife conservation is very difficult due to security issue in the Virunga National Park. The highest numbers of poachers (18 poachers) were recorded in Shingiro sector in 2013 as it is illustrated in Table 3. Indeed, with the government efforts in wildlife conservation, poaching activities are declining in the volcanic area and the tangible proof is the increase of mountain gorillas’ number in the park, where since the introduction of the “Gorilla Naming Ceremony” in 2005, over 258 baby gorillas have been given names and at present, the park accommodates over 350 gorillas (Samedi et al., 2019). Table 3 illustrates the number of snares removed and the fluctuation of poachers arrested from 2006 until 2018 in different sectors of Musanze District.

The findings indicated that the number of poachers has reduced along period of time due to different measures such as patrol, arresting of poachers, Table 2 and introduction of revenue sharing scheme. However, the respondents illustrated that despite the reduction of poaching cases in the Volcanoes National Park after the introduction of revenue sharing scheme in 2005, human-wildlife conflicts which sometimes happen in the area around the park, and animals, especially baboon and buffalo damage local communities’ properties and crops which threaten wildlife conservation in the area through human and wildlife conflicts.

The buffalo wall stone which was built around the park in 2016, initially as a boundary marker between the national and surrounding areas, and was modified and extended to act as a deterrent against crop raiding animals, particularly buffaloes, did not bring a reliable solution to this problem.

Source: RDB, 2019.

Some approaches to deal with this problem included the establishment of the Special Guarantee Fund (SGF) as a public institution which was previously known as Automobile Guarantee Fund created as an autonomous body in 2002 to compensate victims of road accidents caused by non-insured and non-identified vehicles. However, since December 2011, its mandate was extended to compensate victims of wild animals’ damages in areas that are in close proximity with national parks.

Revenue Sharing Program which was introduced by Rwanda Development Board (RDB) in 2005 as one of the important strategies to improve living conditions of local communities around the national parks, and also as a way to motivate former poachers to participate in protection of the parks, its implementation has significantly changed the former poachers’ behaviors towards wildlife conservation in the Volcanoes National Park where, many of them including 45 members of the Gorilla Guardian Village decided to become wildlife conservation preachers.

After the implementation of some conservation measures undertaken by the government including Revenue Sharing Scheme, construction of buffalo wall stone around the park as a solution to human-wildlife conflicts, these projects involving local communities especially the former poachers in protection of the park where some work as park rangers, educating local communities about the role of wildlife protection, expanding the buffer zone area, introduction of Special Guarantee Fund to compensate the victims of wild animals damages, and introduction of Revenue Sharing Scheme where, 10% of the park’s revenues is given to the local communities living adjacent to the park, as it is indicated by the findings in Table 3, these measures have not up to now brought the final solutions to the problem of poaching in the Volcanoes National Park.

Also some of the main causes that push some local people to continue poaching activities have been addressed by the respondents. Thus, the respondents tried to clarify their points of views on what the government together with all concerned stakeholders must do as additional measures to ensure maximum conservation of wildlife in the park. The respondents proposed the construction of a strong fence around the Volcanoes National Park as it was done to Akagera National Park; which at present is electrically fenced (Bariyanga et al., 2016).

The respondents addressed that; it will be more helpful if wildlife conservation-related subjects are added in the curricula and taught to all students from primary schools to university level. In addition to this, wildlife protection laws should be sufficiently explained to all citizens. Finally, it is suggested to organize annual competitions on wildlife conservation projects by rewarding the best performers.