Uganda’s endangered mountain gorillas have seen their numbers increase in recent years.

Tourism has become central to conservation efforts, with money from visitors funding local communities and creating new incentives to protect the animals.

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in a remote part of southwestern Uganda, is home to many groups of habituated gorillas that have become comfortable in the presence of humans.

Tourists pay a considerable sum — $800 in permit fees per foreign non-resident — for the right to see gorillas in their natural habitat.

An official revenue-sharing policy channels $10 from each permit back to the local community via their elected leaders, who can invest in projects ranging from water provision to health care.

Local communities are also entitled to 20% of all park entry fees generated annually.

Many locals, including reformed poachers living near the park, told The Associated Press that the money generated has ensured the recovery of the species, with habitat encroachment and poaching in decline as wildlife authorities seek to collaborate more with nearby communities.

Philemon Mujuni, a poacher until five years ago, said he once thought of the gorilla as a hostile animal to be killed.

But in 2020, when poachers killed a beloved gorilla named Rafiki, Mujuni and others formed an organization of former poachers who now say the primates are more important than any other animal.

“We reformed poachers, we protect where our village is so that no one can enter and kill those gorillas,” he said.

They serve as community watchdogs, looking out for people who might venture into the forest to set duiker traps that sometimes ensnare gorillas.

Their surveillance efforts help support the work of armed rangers who also regularly patrol the park.

The outlook for mountain gorillas has been positive since 2018, when a survey showed that the population exceeded 1,000.

It's a remarkable comeback for a species that faced extinction in the last century.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature, which maintains a list of threatened species, cites the mountain gorilla as endangered, an improvement from its earlier designation as critically endangered. About half of the gorillas live in Uganda.

AP video by Patrick Onen

Production by Jackson Njehia