Certified Interpretive Guides Training at Akagera National Park
17 Akagera National Park staff have been certified with the National Association for Interpretation (NAI) in the US as Interpretive Guides and Hosts.
Two 5-day courses were held in the park in February with trainers Lisa Brochu and Tim Merriman on interpretive guiding and hosting. Akagera guides, Ruzizi management and front of house staff and park receptionists attended the course and additional spaces were offered to tour operators in Rwanda and RWASAGA, the Rwanda Guides Association, in total 26 people participated in the courses.
The course was not teaching content about the plants, animals, people or places, but instead focused on guiding and hosting skills in communicating with guests to enrich the guest experience beyond simply naming what is seen. It was intended to help guides and hosts to communicate their knowledge of the park in more effective ways, to connect guests emotionally and intellectually with the park resources so that they become active supporters of the park and surrounding communities.
The course taught participants about peoples’ motivations for visiting the park and how this might affect the way they are guided, it discussed learning styles and how different people take on information in different ways. The participants are already changing the way they guide visitors to the park and adopting the principles learnt during the course.
Martin Tuyisenge, Community Liaison Officer at Akagera who implements the environmental education programme bringing local leaders and school children to the park, said that one of the most significant things he learned on the course was to ask questions, "this enables you to know what their motivations are and as a guide you can use that knowledge in ways which enable you to gain their interest. Gaining their interest is the first step towards getting them to support our conservation efforts”. Martin also realized the importance of giving people the whole picture. They will not know, unless they are told, that their park entry fees contribute directly to the conservation efforts in the park, to law enforcement, to the salaries of the local staff, as well as to the wider local community through the revenue sharing scheme.
Lisa and Tim have spent over 40 years working in the field of resource management using an interpretive approach to communication. They have worked as environmental educators, visitor center managers, nonprofit organization executives, trainers, and planners throughout their career. They created the instruction program for the National Association for Interpretation based in the USA, which has been used in a number of countries around the world. They have written several books on the subject of heritage interpretation and an award-winning novel. They now provide planning and training services to parks, museums, nature centers, zoos, aquariums, botanical gardens, and historic sites around the world in their consulting business of Heartfelt Associates.