President Kagame graced the event alongside a high-level international attendance. Mr. Kagame was recognised with a Global Environment Award from the group Energy Global Awards (Photo: André Gakwaya)

Kinigi, Northern Province: With names coming from longtime foes DR Congo and Uganda, the ‘Hotel Rwanda’ movie, and the whole world community, the 2010 “Kwita Izina” ceremony clearly gives Rwanda a new face on the global platform. As RNA reports from Kinigi, there were more than just gorillas at stake.

The whole world named a gorilla in Saturday’s “Kwita Izina” in Musanze district, which President Paul Kagame attended.

Hollywood star and guest of honour, the Oscar-nominated US actor Don Cheadle, announced that the name chosen by Internet users across the globe was "Zoya." Zoya refers to life and light in several languages: it means "shining" in India, "alive" in Greek, and "twilight" in Iranian. Hundreds of people around the world voted for the name by text message, website, and even Twitter.

The name selected by children across the planet and given to another baby gorilla was "WakaWaka", which means "to light up" in the Swahili language, another guest of honour, acclaimed wildlife photographer Luo Hong, said.

Thousands attended the Kwita Izina ceremony in the hopes that President Paul Kagame, who had not attended the previous two, would come. They were more than satisfied: the waiting audience rose to its feet with gasps and cheers as Kagame made a special detour through the crowd to greet the people he hopes will soon vote him into power once
more.

There were more than just gorillas at stake: the ceremony coincided with World Environment Day, a yearly event like Earth Day that takes place in a different city with a different theme each year. This year's World Environment Day has the theme of “many species, one planet,” and Kigali played host.

Hollywood actor Don Cheadle, of the controversial Genocide movie ‘Hotel Rwanda’, also received applause as he was appointed as Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) at the same ceremony. Some of his first words in the prestigious advocacy post were to praise Rwanda's handling of the environment.

“You would think that a superpower like the United States or some of the countries in Europe would be leading in this area and we're trailing, in some regards, behind Rwanda,” said Don Cheadle, the newly-appointed UN Goodwill Ambassador for the environment.

“To see their ability to get ahead of the curve should be an inspiration to other countries in the world to do the same and avail themselves of the resources that they have to address this problem.”

Rwanda has banned plastic bags and features the environment prominently in its Vision 2020 development plan. Its biggest renown, and the reason the World Environment Day was held here, is undoubtedly its ecotourism program. President Kagame also received the Global Environment Award.

Mountain Gorillas

Musanze hosts a gorilla-naming ceremony every year, but Rwanda never takes the ceremonies for granted. Rather, each year's event is a sigh of relief that the animals being named actually exists.

Counting the newly-named, there about 750 mountain gorillas in the world. More than half live in Virunga forest, which straddles Uganda, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the rest live in Uganda's Bwindi forest about 35 kilometres away.

The Virunga population dropped two weeks ago as rangers came across four corpses, presumably killed by extreme cold weather. And nature is far from the only threat to the species: gorillas' lives are threatened when parts of their forests are cut down, diseases carry to them from nearby humans, or poachers try and catch them for a multi-thousand dollar prizes.

Even worse, civil war in Democratic Republic of the Congo has inspired some militia to murder gorillas as sabotage of government property. In 2007, for instance, four were shot execution-style in a park.

There were 320 gorillas in Rwanda in 1989 and the number grew to 380 by the 2003's census. Vital to this comeback are the rangers who risk their lives to track, monitor and protect the apes. Rangers work far from their families, endangered by militias, gorillas, water buffalo, snakes, and countless other potential accidents.

Hundreds have died on the job. In other words, Rwanda's gorilla population gain was only achieved with an even-larger sacrifice of human lives.

This year saw 14 baby gorillas born, bringing the total number of baby gorillas named to 105 since the annual Kwita Izina was launched in 2005.

The newborn gorillas and new families were given names including Icyamamare, Igihembo, Zoya, Inshuti, Turate, Inyungu, Isoko, Wakawaka, Umurage, Teta, Agatako, Isabukuru, Murakaza, Ubuhamya, Ntambara, Imbuto, Agashya and Gasore.

An envoy representing DR Congo came up with the name Igihembo (prize); Don Cheadle pronounced the global name Zoya; UNEP named its gorilla Umurage (Legacy); the Ugandan envoy named Isabukuru (aniversary); as Ubuhamya (testimony) was said by the USA government representative; and the Environment Global Award was named its baby Gasore (young man).

“We celebrate the birth of baby gorillas because every birth is an important step towards achieving our vision to see the mountain gorillas move from being one of the world's most endangered species to being some of the world's best protected animals,” said John Gara, CEO of Rwanda Development Board.

To the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Rwanda's gorillas are a happy exception to a depressing trend, because of tourism. Rwanda expects to attract 750,000 tourists this year, generating $44.4 million which can be put towards protecting gorillas. Most species are not so lucky.

Endangered Species

In 1963, the same year legendary zoologist Dian Fossey first saw the mountain gorillas she would later help to protect even after death, biologists at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) began cataloguing species that face extinction. They put together a “Red List” which puts Rwanda's mountain gorillas into perspective.

Since the list was put together, over 800 species are known to have perished entirely and dozens more only exist in captivity. The list chronicles the difficulties of keeping over 17,000 other species on the planet though they are at serious risk of disappearing.

Rwanda's mountain gorillas are a tiny part of that picture. And the list is far from complete. Conservation International, a respected research and advocacy agency in Washington, D.C., estimates that one species dies every 20 minutes. While thousands of species have been kept alive in recent decades, millions of others have silently perished.

Human beings play a huge role in the destruction of species. We destroy and pollute habitats, over-hunt, over-fish, and contribute to global climate change, which many species can't adapt to.

This year's World Environment Day is meant to show how this can change, and Rwanda is seen as a leader in that regard.

In attendance alongside Cheadle and Luo Hong, was UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner, who called Rwanda "a pioneer in green economic growth with a true commitment to a cleaner development model".

He said UNEP had "joined forces with partners to contribute to gorilla conservation and provide hundreds of solar lights for Rwandan villagers and schoolchildren".