Mist settles gently on the green shoulders of the Virunga mountains, softening the edges of the hills as morning arrives in Kinigi, a town at the foot of this mountain range in Rwanda's Northern Province. Here, the cold comes first. Then breath, visible and warm, cutting through the air in small bursts before speech can follow. It is the kind of morning that holds silence for a moment longer than expected-the kind that lets memory rise before the day does.

It is also the kind of morning Murwanashyaka Martin once walked into as a poacher. Before craft tables, before tourists, before the steady discipline of shaping souvenirs by hand, his life moved to a different rhythm. At the edge of Volcanoes National Park, where farmland presses against protected wilderness, survival often blurred the line between need and harm.

He remembers those years without pride and without performance, speaking instead with the almost apologetic restraint of someone who has spent enough time with the weight of his own past.

"We used to be hunters," he says. "Whenever we protected the potato fields along the park wall, we chased and caught antelopes that had escaped… bringing the meat home to sell and eat."

Stories like these from Kinigi reflect a broader shift happening across the continent: African communities, especially young people, are taking the lead in shaping conservation solutions rooted in local knowledge, culture, and economic opportunity. Across Africa, conservation is increasingly being driven not only by the protection of wildlife, but by the people living closest to these landscapes-young entrepreneurs, artisans, performers, and community leaders building futures tied to sustainability rather than exploitation.

For Martin and many in Kinigi, that life felt immediate and necessary. Conservation once seemed distant and imposed, but with time and opportunity, perspectives have changed.

A Shift from Survival to Sustainability

Today, Martin is a craftsman at the Community-Based Tourism Center in Kinigi. The hands that once followed animals through the landscape now work with patience and precision, making items for visitors who come to experience the beauty and biodiversity of this corner of Rwanda.

Crafts made at the Community-Based Tourism Center in Kinigi that serve as meaningful souvenirs for visitors to the landscape.

"We formed groups to make crafts that tourists would buy as souvenirs," Martin explains. "Now, we are also responsible for preserving the environment we once harmed."

That sentence marks the story's key turn. Martin isn't just earning differently; he's thinking differently. The landscape now offers purpose and a reason to protect what remains.

The African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) is partnering with Red Rocks Initiative for Sustainable Development, in close collaboration with the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), to implement the Community-Based Tourism Center (CBTC) as a flagship model for linking conservation with community livelihoods around Volcanoes National Park.

This collaboration combines AWF's landscape-level conservation expertise, Red Rocks' grassroots experience in community-based tourism and cultural programming, and RDB's mandate in tourism development and protected area management. Together, they are positioning the CBTC as a structured platform where local communities actively participate in-and benefit from-Rwanda's growing tourism economy.

Skills That Replace Old Habits

Martin knows, perhaps better than most, that transformation is rarely complete just because it has begun.

"In the past, when I used to eat wild animals, I gained nothing but destruction out of ignorance."

Through craftwork, Martin has built a stable livelihood. Still, he understands how fragile behavior change can be when economic alternatives are not sustained.

"I would like your help in publicizing our activities so we can maintain our productivity, stay motivated, and avoid falling back into old habits."

From Poaching to Purpose

Murwanashyaka Martin carving a souvenir.

Together, Martin traces a larger shift taking root around Volcanoes National Park. Martin now speaks to others who still see poaching as an option, urging them toward a different path. Hunting, he says, is uncertain. Sustainable work offers something poaching never could: stability, savings, and the ability to earn a genuine living.

That is what makes Kinigi's experience significant. It shows that behavior change is a process made tangible through livelihoods, skills, and social support. By aligning conservation priorities with tourism development and community empowerment, the partnership between AWF, Red Rocks, and RDB creates a system where protecting natural resources becomes directly beneficial to local populations.

The CBTC thus functions not only as a tourism hub, but as a scalable model for inclusive, conservation-driven development, demonstrating how coordinated institutional collaboration can transform livelihoods, strengthen local economies, and reinforce long-term stewardship of biodiversity.

This Africa Day, Kinigi offers more than a story of conservation success; it offers a reminder that Africa's greatest resource is its people, especially its youth, whose ideas, labor, and resilience are shaping a more sustainable future from the ground up. In the shadow of the Virungas, conservation is no longer only about protecting wildlife; it is about restoring dignity, creating opportunity, and ensuring that the next generation inherits both a thriving environment and the means to prosper alongside it.