Bill Weber and Amy Vedder arrived in Rwanda in 1978 to study mountain gorillas with the world-famous Dian Fossey. At the time the gorillas' population was threatened with extinction, owing to both poaching and to the continuing loss of their habitat in the Virunga mountains to development. Weber and Vedder realised that, unless the needs of the local Rwandans were addressed, the mountain gorillas were doomed. Over Fossey's objections, they launched the Mountain Gorilla Project, one of the world's first experiments in eco-tourism, and quickly it proved hugely successful. This is the story of their years in Rwanda.
Bill Weber and Amy Vedder, of the Wildlife Conservation Society, have devoted more than twenty-five years to the cause of conservation in nearly thirty countries in Africa and around the world.