On 1 February 2022, the very much anticipated Ellen De Generes Campus opened adjacent to Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda.
Thanks to the Ellen Fund, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund now has a home to expand and continue their conservation efforts. But not just any house; this state-of-the-art campus houses students, scientists, tourists, conservation partners, and community members.
The eco-friendly facility comprises the Sandy and Harold Price Research Center, the Cindy Broder Conservation Gallery, and the Rob and Melani Walton Education Center. Visitors will also be able to view exclusive artefacts from Fossey’s 18-year stay with gorillas, as well as augmented and virtual reality experiences.
“Dian Fossey has always been a hero of mine, and so it’s been the honour of a lifetime to support this project,” Ellen said as a child.
“It is our hope that people who visit the Ellen DeGeneres Campus will leave inspired to make a difference, just as Dian Fossey did,” said Dr. Tara Stoinski, president and chief scientific officer of the Fossey Fund.
The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund
The Ellen Fund and The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund collaborated to build a permanent home in Rwanda to allow for more research and conservation work to be done in order to learn more about Mountain Gorillas. The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund has been at the forefront of gorilla conservation for more than 50 years, working with two of the four subspecies, the critically endangered Grauer’s gorillas in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and the endangered mountain gorillas in Volcanoes National Park, using a unique for point model that has proven successful.
- Protecting Gorillas
- Conducting Science
- Training Conservationists
- Helping Communities
Dian Fossey was concerned that mountain gorillas would become extinct by the year 2000. However, the population in the region has increased from a low of 250 gorillas in the 1980s to more than 600 today, which has been attributed to the “rare conservation success story” of Fossey and other staff members.