Where your gorilla permit money actually goes

Between Uganda and Rwanda, only Rwanda publishes a figure: RDB states that 10% of gorilla permit revenue goes to community revenue-sharing. Uganda's UWA publishes no percentage. It states instead that the USD 800 permit rate — USD 600 in April, May and November, under the low-season rate UWA introduced on 26 February 2026 — covers three things: the guide fee, park entrance for the day of tracking, and a community development contribution.

That is the whole published answer. What follows is what each authority actually publishes, what it does not, and which parts of the money you can direct yourself.

What is actually inside the price of a gorilla permit?

Uganda Wildlife Authority is unusually specific about the bundle. Its Conservation Tariff for July 2024 to June 2026 — still the rates document UWA serves on its own site — states that the gorilla tracking rate for Bwindi Impenetrable and Mgahinga Gorilla national parks includes the guide fee, park entrance for the day, and a community development contribution. The tariff lists the same three components against the four-hour gorilla habituation experience at USD 1,500, a rate scheduled to rise to USD 1,800 on 1 January 2027. The tariff does not split habituation by park or sector, so if a quote names one, that is the operator's detail rather than UWA's.

There is a fourth component folded in that is easy to miss: a Uganda gorilla permit also carries one day's free entrance to Mount Elgon National Park and Toro-Semliki Wildlife Reserve, usable within one month before or after your tracking date.

Rwanda's booking portal does not itemise the USD 1,500 permit in the same way. What RDB publishes instead is the revenue-sharing headline — 10% of permit revenue directed to communities around the parks — on its consumer tourism site, alongside the quota that limits how much revenue there can be: 8 permits per gorilla family per day, capped at 96 permits a day nationally.

Uganda or Rwanda: what does each authority publish?

If you are weighing the two countries on more than money, the comparison is set out separately in Uganda vs Rwanda gorilla trekking.

Why does Uganda not publish a percentage?

UWA does not say, and there is no sound basis for guessing. The community development contribution is named as a component in UWA's tariff, but its size appears in neither the tariff nor the July 2024 Guidelines for the Management of Gorilla and Chimpanzee Tracking. Where a website gives a per-permit figure or a percentage for Uganda, that number is not in UWA's published documents — treat it as that site's estimate, not an authority's figure.

The practical consequence: neither UWA nor RDB publishes a worked per-permit breakdown. Rwanda's 10% is the one hard number in this space, and anything finer-grained than that is inference.

Does the permit price change on the way to the park?

Not through the tariff, which is set by the authority and is the same figure for every buyer in a given visitor category. What varies is your operator's own service fee, and the clearest way to handle that is to look at it separately. Ask for the permit to be shown at the authority's published rate, with the operator's planning and ground handling priced as its own line. If a quote will not separate them, that is worth asking about.

Two Uganda rules make the money trail easy to follow. UWA sells foreign non-resident gorilla and chimpanzee permits only through UTB-licensed operators, and states that all gorilla and chimpanzee payments are made through its Kampala headquarters. And since 1 March 2026 there is no free hold period at all — the seven-day unpaid reservation window was suspended, and the booking system now secures a permit only on full payment at the time of booking, with no deposits and no partial bank settlement accepted. Your money reaches UWA the day you book, not the day you trek. The full booking mechanics are set out in our guide to Uganda gorilla permit costs and booking.

What happens to the money if plans change?

This is where the shape of the fee becomes visible, because the refund rules tell you what has already been spent.

• UWA's cancellation scale runs from the date it receives your written request: no refund within 14 days of tracking, 25% at 15 to 45 days, 50% at 46 to 60 days, 75% at 61 days or more.
• Every UWA refund is paid less incidental costs, which UWA defines as bank charges and government taxes. Part of what you paid has already left the system as tax.
• Rescheduling is capped at two changes per permit. The first is free; the second attracts a 25% surcharge. A request made fewer than 14 days before tracking is subject to availability plus a 25% surcharge, and a permit that has already been rescheduled cannot then be refunded.
• Tracking in a different location from the one booked is charged at 50% of the permit fee.
• The USD 600 low-season permit for April, May and November cannot be rescheduled at all — UWA states this explicitly, and it is the trade-off attached to the USD 200 saving.
• In Rwanda, RDB publishes remedies rather than a cancellation scale: another chance or a full refund if the gorilla group's movement prevents you tracking all day, 75% if you track all day and fail to make contact for another reason, and no refund for late arrival, flight delay or absence.

What your permit money does not buy

The permit is narrower than it sounds, and the gaps are where the rest of your spending goes.

• Park entrance beyond the tracking day. The permit covers entrance for the day you track. Additional days in Bwindi or Mgahinga are charged at UWA's Category A rate of USD 40 per foreign non-resident adult per 24 hours.
• Porters. No porter fee for gorilla trekking appears in the UWA Conservation Tariff or in the RDB fee schedule. Porters are engaged and paid at the trailhead rather than through the authority's published tariff, so carry it as a separate line in your budget and confirm the going rate before the trek.
• Tips, lodges, transport, meals and guiding beyond the park. All of it sits outside the permit.

So if the question behind your question is how to make the trip count locally, the permit is not the lever: its split is fixed by the authority and, in Uganda, not published at all. The spending you actually control is everything around it — hiring a porter, buying at the trailhead cooperatives, choosing lodges that hire and source from the surrounding parishes — and those choices are yours to direct, unlike the gap between a USD 800 Uganda permit (USD 600 in April, May and November) and a USD 1,500 Rwandan one.

What changes on 1 January 2027?

UWA has published its next revision, and the headline is that gorilla tracking is not part of it: the 2027 list gives the foreign non-resident gorilla permit at USD 800, the same as today's standard-season rate. What rises on that date is everything around it — gorilla habituation from USD 1,500 to USD 1,800, chimpanzee tracking at Kibale from USD 250 to USD 300, chimpanzee habituation at Kibale from USD 300 to USD 400, and chimpanzee tracking at Kyambura Gorge from USD 100 to USD 200.

Two things to carry into a 2027 booking. The 26 February 2026 circular that introduced the USD 600 low-season gorilla permit also set a low-season chimpanzee tracking rate of USD 200 for April, May and November, so the Kibale figures above are standard-season rates. And the 2027 list does not restate either low-season rate, so confirm the low-season position for April, May or November 2027 travel at the point of booking. UWA also notes that its rates are subject to change without prior notice, which is why we confirm every figure against the authority's current published rate when we quote.

The short version

One published number exists — Rwanda's 10% — and one published structure exists: Uganda's three-part permit of guide fee, day entrance and community contribution. Everything more precise than that is somebody's estimate. If a website tells you exactly how your permit fee is split, ask where the figure comes from.

If you want the permit handled at the authority's published rate, see how we run gorilla trekking, read about Volcanoes National Park, or start with planning your safari. You can also talk to us directly — we would rather tell you what is not published than invent it.