The Rwanda Development Board-Tourism and Conservation (RDB-TC) implement a PES scheme to provide alternative livelihoods to people excluded from Volcanoes National Park (VNP) and Nyungwe National Park (NNP ) in Rwanda. It has disbursed USD 918959 (5% of tourism revenues from these protected areas) on community projects for environment protection, education, health care, water and sanitation, basic infrastructure, food security, and income generating activities since 2005. In 2007, projects income was estimated over USD 200,000. The project achieved reduced poaching, infringement and accessing of the parks. The community participation in tourism related activities increased as e.g. porterage, traditional dances, small and medium enterprises. A remark is there have not been deliberate efforts to collect baselines to measure improvement in biodiversity conservation and enhancement of community livelihoods. The challenge is to assess impact on the community level.
