I often think that’s more written about gorillas in Congo, Rwanda and Uganda than about people. Gorillas in Their Midst is a great story because it’s about gorillas, which people love, but not just about gorillas. But people will read it because they love gorillas.

The story looks into how gorilla conservation and gorilla tourism affects people living near and among the gorillas. Journalist Alex Halperin, a friend of mine, spends time with both gorilla conservationists and the local population around Virunga National Park to get both sides of the story.

This observation gets to the heart of what bothers me about the gorilla thing:

The Shingiro clinic doesn’t have a doctor for the 30,000 people in its coverage area. By comparison, a team of veterinarians attended the sick gorilla.

Another good point, not really related to gorillas but more relevant to development:

Micro-entrepreneurship programs have proliferated around Africa, but the most ambitious examples, the ones trying to reach developed-world consumers, struggle with distribution. A group might teach widowed AIDS patients to stitch attractive, durable handbags, but where can they be sold? Tourist areas are already saturated with gift stalls. Big retailers such as Wal-Mart can’t be bothered to import the 500 (or 5,000) necklaces a collective might bead in a month. Selling through online auction giant eBay requires regular mail service and a decent Internet connection, neither of which are available in northern Rwanda. Even if there were vast unmet demand for African souvenirs, it would be cheaper to make them in China. Indeed, much of the “traditional” cloth found in Africa already comes from China.

Alex doesn’t necessarily take sides in the gorilla versus local debate, because that’s not what the article is really about, but about the economic interaction between the two groups.

This kind of perspective is key to conservation, tourism and development.