Members of FHA have more than 15 years’ experience in conservation of the Gishwati Natural Forest. Under GACP, FHA members gained important managerial and technical skills. Currently, FHA focuses its activities on conservation of the Gishwati Natural Forest. These include active community forest protection, community outreach, improving local livelihoods, reducing human-wildlife conflicts, facilitating research at Gishwati and advocating for larger protection of the Gishwati Natural Forest. Since 2012, FHA took over the work of the GACP and is taking the GACP mission forward by continuing engaging local communities in conservation of the Gishwati Natural Forest.

FHA’s notable conservation achievements:

• With the support of the Community Forest Protection Initiative created by FHA, the forest was better patrolled and monitored; consequently, illegal activities have gone down drastically from 2013 up to the time Rwanda Development Board (RDB) took over the management of the Gishwati-Mukura National Park (October 2018)
• The local chimpanzee population has grown and is currently estimated to 32 individuals;
• Many research and conservation initiatives have been undertaken in partnership with West Chester University and Drake University. This includes research on the Gishwati natural forest dynamics, Behavioral Ecology of chimpanzees and Golden monkey, the role of food availability on feeding competition in eastern chimpanzees and the study on how crop raiding should be mitigated.
• Local awareness about the importance of conserving the GFR and the environment in general is increased. This includes support to eco-clubs in 13 schools around the forest in environmental education.
• FHA also assists local people to improve livelihoods through jobs provision, community-based tourism development and linking cooperatives to markets.
• FHA successfully advocated for upgrading the Gishwati Forest to a National Park and developed an interim management plan of the Gishwati Natural Forest that is currently serving as a basis for the development of the general management plan of the Gishwati-Mukura National Park and the development of infrastructure around the Gishwati forest.
• The greatest achievement however, Government of Rwanda up-graded the conservation status of Gishwati Natural Forest (together with Mukura Natural Forest) from Forest Reserve to National Park and currently the Gishwati-Mukura National Park is officially designated part of the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, Gishwati-Mukura Landscape.