Sustainable tourism in the African Great Lakes Parks

The African Great Lakes Region has been facing indescribable economic, social, cultural and political problems for a decade as a result of repeated wars, mass uprisings and warlords in Uganda, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Large numbers of children and young people, instead of going to school, have either been forcibly conscripted into armed gangs or given over to work extracting minerals for their rebel leaders in order to perpetuate the war. The war in the east of the DRC has dispersed the makers and sellers of works of art that were the pride of black Africa at exhibitions. The cultural wealth of all the peoples of the glR has been affected by these regrettable events.