Over the next few posts I’ll share with you pictures made by our
Art of Conservation students of several different animals that live in the Virunga Forest and a bit of information about these animals, their habitat and country statistics. I love the effort each student has put forth in their pictures, I hope you do too.

With pencil and paper, students from all three classes follow Eric’s instruction on
how to draw a mountain gorilla.

There are 740 mountain gorillas remaining in the world today with half of the population in the Virunga Forest and the other half in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda. 70% of these mountain gorillas are visited by tourists each year.

The Virunga Forest - Parc National des Vocans (PNV) - consists of 125 Km2 of mountain forest and six Virunga Volcanoes: Karisimbi, Visoke, Mikeno, Sabyinyo, Gahinga, and Muhabura. Genetic similarity between people and gorillas is around 98%.

After the anatomical lesson of drawing a gorilla, students receive watercolor paper and paints and create a gorilla any way they desire!

Rwanda, where our art classes are being held, is a poor rural country with about 90% of the population engaged in mainly subsistence agriculture. A few of the environmental issues are deforestation, overgrazing, soil exhaustion, soil erosion and widespread poaching.

Primary school education enrollment has increased even if many of the children in primary school are above the official primary school age range, due to late entry and delays in their schooling. Only 8% of children aged 13 to 18 years are in secondary education.

This sweet young boy draws a great gorilla.

AIDS-HIV transmission, malaria, and tuberculosis are threatening diseases prevalent in Rwanda. So are food or waterborne diseases such as diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever.

Eric at the chalkboard with students following his instructions.

There is strong evidence suggesting that many primate species are susceptible to many of the infections that humans are afflicted with and that the transmission of infection can occur in both directions.

Please stay tuned for Fahad’s instruction of more VIRUNGA FOREST ANIMALSl!

Julie

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