As a project officer for NatureUganda, Natukunda understands that the 3,400 hectares of the Echuya reserve cannot be policed into existence. Instead, she gathers the women of the local districts—areas where the population density reaches 300 individuals per square kilometer—and provides them with the tools of leadership and sustainable alternatives. By planting 7,500 trees around the landscape, these women are creating a buffer of resources that keeps the interior of the forest, and the rare Grauer’s Rush Warbler that nests within it, undisturbed.
The work is a delicate balancing of human need and biological necessity. In these high-altitude forests, 20 percent of the vegetation is mountain bamboo, a resource the local communities have harvested for generations. Natukunda’s initiative, part of the broader AfricElle project, transforms these neighbors from foragers into stewards, ensuring the forest remains a sanctuary rather than a casualty of survival.
Across the border in Rwanda, in the village of Muyebe, Erneste Twagirimana works with similar quiet resolve. Near the Busaga Forest, a small fragment of green, he is planting avocado trees on his own land. This is a practical mercy. By cultivating his own fruit, he and his neighbors no longer need to enter the forest for firewood or food, leaving the tall canopy trees available for the Hooded Vulture. These birds are extraordinarily sensitive; when agitated, their pale pink facial skin flushes a deep, sudden red before they take flight.
The Busaga Forest is the only known breeding site for these critically endangered vultures in Rwanda. Through the efforts of Nature Rwanda, the area was designated a Key Biodiversity Area, yet its future rests in the hands of farmers like Twagirimana. By choosing to plant his own trees, he ensures that the vultures can continue to build their stick nests in the high forks of the canopy, unbothered by the world below.