Rwanda mountain gorilla trekking has become such a must for tourists visiting Africa that the number of tourists visiting Parc Des Volcans has forced the Rwanda Development Board – RDB to raise the price of Rwanda gorilla permits.

The prices of gorilla permits to see the mountain gorillas in Rwanda, has been hiked from $500 to $750 per person per day effective 1^st June 2012.

According to a Study that was published in PLUS ONE, Rwanda raised about $8 million in the 2008 for gorilla conservation. The Rwanda Development Board says it was necessary to raise the gorilla trekking fee in order to raise more money for the conservation of these endangered species.

In the same year – 2008 about twenty thousand – 20,000 tourists did visit Rwanda gorillas and this is a high number that could adversely affect the the conservation of these gentle giants. The number of people doing a gorilla safari has thus been limited daily to a certain number – 8 people per family so as not to affect the mountain gorillas.

In 2010 due to this effective and concerted effort by the Uganda, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo, the number of mountain gorillas has greatly increased to about 790 in the wild.

Mountain gorillas which were once highly endangered are now seeing a steady increase in their population with an annual growth of about 3.7% in the population.

This trend however is not the same with the lowland gorillas of the Congo basin which have seen a steady decline in number due to poaching, loss of habitat due to the felling of trees and the outbreak of diseases.