The Gorilla Years
"I didn’t set out to be a gorilla man; I just wanted to get back to Africa. But whenever I spend time with them, I quickly fall under their spell."
Humankind’s love of gorillas has long been reflected in literature and films—Tarzan, King Kong, The Jungle Book, Gorillas in the Mist—and their popularity continues to grow. But due to climate change and poaching, only a few hundred mountain gorillas remain, restricted to just two isolated highland areas in the border region of Uganda, Rwanda, and Congo. Since there are none in captivity, their future depends on their survival in the wild.
Greg Cummings was proud, if a little apprehensive, to be signed in 1991 as the executive director of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund UK. In less than two years, he’d gone from West End bartender to executive director of an international organization devoted to saving “the greatest of the great apes,” as its founder, Dian Fossey, described them.
In Gorilla Tactics, Cummings shares his fascinating experiences as a “wildlife Robin Hood”—raising money from the rich and famous and redistributing it to endangered gorillas and their habitats—during his seventeen years leading the organization. Moving from boardrooms in Manhattan and London to mountain treks in Rwanda and the Congo, including during the Rwandan Civil War, he met and enlisted the help of celebrities and activists such as Douglas Adams, Arthur C. Clarke, Sigourney Weaver, Bill Gates, and Leonardo DiCaprio, work that continues to this day through his Blue Gorilla Giving Consultancy.
Gorilla Tactics: How to Save a Species
Available in all major bookstores
Greg Cummings has published in The Guardian, The Ecologist, and Sea Angler. In 2002 his organization was awarded the BBC Animal Awards’ International Award for Outstanding Work in Conservation. A fundraiser since 1990, Cummings has raised money in the United States, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Italy, and Canada for causes ranging from wildlife conservation to mental health. As director of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund UK, he set up dozens of innovative, grassroots projects in troubled parts of the world—many of which are self-sustaining to this day. Raised on four continents, Greg has a unique global perspective, which has given him an eye for where the next crisis might arise. He and his wife, Roberta, divide their time between Sicily, the Kenya coast and Vancouver Island.
ARTICLES
‘For a Lifelong Homeless Traveler, Music Marks the Place‘ Perspective Travel, Dec 2023
‘Malindi, Kenya: Worth the Slog’ GO Nomad, Nov 2022
‘Billfish Fever in Malindi’ Sea Angler, Feb 2018
‘Johnny Oceans: Lie or Legend?’ The Flamingo Sun, Sep 2013
‘Conservation in the Mountains of Uganda’ The Ecologist, Dec 2012
‘Trekking with gorillas in central Africa‘ The Guardian, Nov 2012
BOOKS
Gorilla Tactics (Chicago Review Press, 2024)
Pirates (Cutting Edge Press, 2014)
Gorillaland (Cutting Edge Press, 2012)
BLOGS
PHOTOGRAPHS
Milestones in Greg's Career
Gorillas From Space
Greg played a pivotal role in getting the space shuttle Endeavour to aim its on-board radar at the habitat of the endangered mountain gorillas in central Africa (referred to in the correspondence above as “the Karaoke Research Center”). In April 1994, the space shuttle’s SIR-C/X-SAR infrared radar captured the gorilla habitat on two orbits. But Endeavour’s flight also coincided with the start of a massacre in the farmlands and towns adjacent to the gorilla habitat. In what would later become known as the Rwandan genocide, nearly a million men, women and children were brutally murdered in 100 days. The conflict unnerved NASA/JPL who thought it might be accused of spying. After Arthur C. Clarke stepped in on behalf of the cause, however, they agreed to release the data set, which would prove a powerful conservation tool for the protection of the world’s last remaining mountain gorillas who, in turn, would become a boon to Rwanda’s economy. This exchange of faxes between Arthur C. Clarke and JPL is the moment it all came together.
Gorilla Friendly Technology
In 2001, Greg collaborated with actor Leonardo DiCaprio to mitigate the impact coltan mining was having on the Eastern lowland gorillas as a result of the tech industry’s demand for the mineral. Leonardo became an outspoken advocate for the gorillas and led the campaign for “gorilla friendly” technology. After participating in an online chat with Arthur C. Clarke to raise awareness of the issue, he wrote this handwritten card to personally thank Greg for his efforts. The following year, he and Greg visited Koko, the signing gorilla, in Woodside, CA. The actor and Koko spent time chatting and later Leonardo sat in a glade in the forest and ad-libbed to camera about saving gorillas and other endangered animals.
Centenary Concert for the Mountain Gorillas
In 2002, the Royal Opera House played host to a benefit concert to mark the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the mountain gorillas. Opening with a short film of Leonardo DiCaprio meeting Koko in Woodside, the show featured some of Britain’s leading actors reading from Dian Fossey’s letters to her mother. With touching candour, Dame Eileen Atkins read a letter Dian had written after the death of her favourite gorilla, Digit. In contrast, Michael Palin’s “Save the Plankton” sketch had people rolling in the isles: “An international organization, which I run from my flat — or my mum’s, when I’m out.” Then Joe Strummer of The Clash and his band the Mescaleros took to the stage and shook the 150-year-old venue to its core with a 20-minute set to end the first half with stomping renditions of “Rudy Can’t Fail” and “White Riot.”
Although billed as the first-ever rock concert at the Royal Opera House, the show had some operatic moments too, with the Opera Babes’ adaptation of Delibes’s Lakmé and Alessandro Safina performing “Band of Brothers” for the first time publicly, backed by the London Metropolitan Orchestra and its composer — the man who brought the whole evening together — musical director Michael Kamen. During Bryan Adams closing “unplugged” set, he was joined on stage by Queen guitarist Brian May. With hits like Adams’s “Run to You” and Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” the two rockstars brought down the House. Brian May told the audience that it was time the human race thought about the species with which we share this planet, creatures that are “able to feel joy and pain… able to fall in love.” He said he’d searched Queen’s catalog for songs “which might speak for this all-important cause”, and then played a tender version of “Is This the World We Created . . . ?”, with slow-motion film of gorillas projected on a back screen.
It was a night to remember. The performances were first-rate and the point of the evening was never far from people’s minds. As a fundraiser, set into motion 18 months earlier by Greg and his co-director at the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, Jillian Miller, the concert took in £130,000 at the box office and raised £21,000 on the night. And the publicity it generated was stupendous. Mountain gorillas made their mark on London’s glittering West End.
Gorilla Award
In December 2009, the Year of the Gorilla, Greg received the “Gorilla Award” from the Ministère de l’Éducation nationale of France at the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris. Sponsored by conservationist, Xavier Gilibert, and crafted by a Congolese artist, the award was in appreciation of Greg’s efforts to save gorillas in central Africa. During his tenure as executive director of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund UK, later renamed the Gorilla Organization, mountain gorilla numbers rose by 50%. And, thanks to the community conservation programme that he and Jillian Miller put in motion, the people living adjacent to the gorillas have a stake in their survival. It’s a conservation success story.
World Water Day
To mark World Water Day 2006, actor and environmental activist Daryl Hannah joined Greg on a gorilla trek in Rwanda sponsored by Yahoo and led by adventure travel guru Richard Bangs. During her four-day stay, she contributed much to the tasks at hand, staying up late to help the crew with film edits before the clips got relayed via a high-speed link to California, and then getting up early the next morning to track mountain gorillas on volcanoes again and again.
As planned, Daryl opened a water cistern on World Water Day, funded by Yahoo. In Adventures with Purpose: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Earth, a book by Richard Bangs, he describes the purpose the trip.
“The money for gorilla salvation goes to many good works, such as training trackers, clothing and arming antipoaching squads, removing snares, researching behavior, even giving inoculations. But the Gorilla Organization, which Greg heads, is devoted to what he calls ‘a holistic solution,’ one that invests in community development surrounding the park. His theory is that if the lives of the two and a half million people who live in the shadow of the Virungas are improved because of the presence of the great apes, they will come to say to the more shortsighted, ‘Hell, no. You’re not coming into the gorilla habitat. The gorillas are our bread and butter here.’ And the gorillas’ presence is the reason for a local supply of clean water, as we are to witness.”
Greg and Daryl have remained friends and have continued to collaborate together – most recently for World Elephant Day 2025, when she and Peter Gabriel contributed to the campaign video:
Digit News - the first ten issues
What are people saying about Gorilla Tactics?
Radio and Podcast Interviews
KokoCast
Cultivating Conservation
Conservation Careers
CBC Radio
Talk Radio Europe
The Deep Dive - AI-generated Podcast
Praise for Gorilla Tactics
“Gorilla Tactics is the remarkable journey of an inveterate hustler, moving from the universe of Arthur C. Clarke to the volcanoes of Virunga. Greg Cummings pursues the very rich and the very famous, always for one single goal, his passion and raison d’être, the survival of the… pic.twitter.com/lMPsJWSHE2
— Peter Gabriel (@itspetergabriel) March 11, 2024
Highly recommended https://t.co/m09bEqvHxe
— Daryl Hannah (@dhlovelife) June 2, 2024
Greg reads from his memoir GORILLA TACTICS
🖤 📖☮️
Greg reads from Gorilla Tactics
Meeting Ziz
“Welcome to our new client, Greg Cummings! We are excited to welcome him to Langtons International Agency. Greg submitted his proposal for his new book “Gorilla Tactics: How to Save a Species” which we took on immediately. This stunning biographical book explores the story of how Cummings and his wife Jillian have spent two decades ‘raising money from the rich and famous in Mayfair, Manhattan and Malibu and disbursing the funds to poor communities and to the upkeep of the gorilla habitats in Africa as seen by Dian Fossey.'” – Linda Langton, President, Langtons International Agency, New York City.
Experienced writer
Greg, who first published in the Singapore Monitor in 1985, is an experienced jobbing writer who applies skill, acumen and his perspective as a Third Culture Kid to a broad range of topics. His interests are legion. Whether listening to World Music dance mixes or a pair of lions bringing down a buffalo at dawn, whether tasting Sicilian street food in Palermo, clams in Manhattan, or sushi in Los Cabos, whether tracking disturbing trends in geopolitics or mountain gorillas ranging through central Africa’s rainforests, Greg is tuned to a rare frequency. With his finger on the planet’s pulse, he has a global view. Email him.
A Sample of Greg's photos
See more in the Photo portfolio
In the media
In December 2021 Greg was interviewed by Vanislarts about his writing.
Listen (above) as Robyn Burns of CBC Victoria’s “All Points West” interviews Greg about his career as a conservationist and safari guide.
Apes in Danger, a three part BBC documentary that takes a definitive look at the global crises facing the world’s last great apes, aired in the UK in 2006. The series’ episode featuring Greg’s campaign to mitigate the threat that coltan mining posed on gorillas in the Congo drew its highest viewer ratings.
In March 2006, to mark World Water Day, Greg took Daryl Hannah to meet gorillas in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park, and she later opened a new water cistern at a school. The trip was filmed for Richard Bangs Adventures.
In 2002, Greg launched a campaign to mitigate the impact that coltan mining was having on the Eastern lowland gorillas in the Congo. He subsequently recruited Leonardo DiCaprio to lead the campaign, and created the Durban Process, an inventive forum involving all sides of the conflict, to save gorillas.
Designer Storm Thorgerson, best known for his album cover artwork for Pink Floyd, Genesis, Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones, made this film of Arthur C. Clarke delivering a goodwill message which was shown at the premiere of the movie CONGO at the Empire Leicester Square, London June 1995.
'Cross Culture Odyssey: Memoir of a Repat'
by Greg Cummings
Being homeward bound can be a difficult journey for some. “Where is home? Where do I belong? How do I repatriate after a lifetime as an expatriate?” For this Third Culture Kid, coming home is an odyssey.
Greg Cummings calls himself a Cross Culture Kid, because the three in “Third Culture Kid” does not quite cut it. He grew up in a multitude of countries. An upbringing as varied and eventful requires adapting to a myriad of cultures. That mix of mores is what gives a TCK his or her distinct flavour. Some thrive on it. President Obama is proof a TCK can achieve greatness. And there is no denying that it is a novel way to grow up. But global nomadism also has its disadvantages which rarely get talked about. Where does a cross culture creature belong? Greg tries twice to repatriate — as a teenager and as a young man. He fails both times. It is not until his third attempt in his middle age that he sees what has been holding him back. “Homelessness is key to my identity, cut deep into the diamantine core of my character. And yet I feel at home everywhere.” This book chronicles Greg’s struggles to settle in Canada. It is about the uneasy transition he has faced, again and again, in returning to his passport country, and the reasons why global nomads find it so hard to repatriate. In transitioning to repat, he confronts his poor choices, puzzles out possible reasons for them, and tries to discover who he really is. He takes some agency in his life, and attempts to regain his integrity.
As globalization gains ground, generations of highly-mobile kids will go out into the world and, at their travels end, most of them will find repatriating a challenge, if not impossible. Few are prepared for what awaits them when they return to their native countries and how traumatic the transition from expat to repat can be. Greg hopes this book will be a useful guide.
For a copy of the complete manuscript (85,000 words) email the author. Otherwise you may download a copy of the book proposal here.
An award-winning conservationist, Greg Cummings achieved notable success protecting wild gorilla populations in Africa through community-based initiatives. During his 17-year tenure as director of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund UK, he raised millions of dollars from companies, foundations and individuals around the world. All that money was invested directly into communities adjacent to gorilla habitats, which helped ensure their survival.
As a veteran safari guide, Greg has taken movie producers, heads of industry, ambassadors, and celebrities to meet great apes in the wild. After trekking with him in the Congo jungle, Steve McQueen, who recently won an Oscar for Best Picture, said, “Basically he’s Dennis Hopper out of Apocalypse Now!”
Greg is a consummate storyteller, and has appeared with Tom Brokaw on the Today Show, participated in docs for the BBC, NPR, and CBC, and published articles in The Guardian, Sea Angler, and The Ecologist.
Also by Greg Cummings:
- Gorillaland (Cutting Edge Press, London 2012)
- Pirates (Cutting Edge Press, London 2014)
Love Song for Sicily
by Greg Cummings “Sicily is the clue to everything.” – Goethe [13 min read] The Mezzogiorno sun shines relentlessly on Lipari Island. Temperatures continue to
World Elephant Day
This World Elephant Day, stand with the matriarchs, the memory-keepers of the wild. Their future depends on what we do now. Join the movement to
Systems Change: The Funders’ Perspective
Systems Change: The Funders’ Perspective In recent years, a growing number of funders in Europe and North America have begun to invest in systems change.
Dismantling Fortress Conservation
Consequent of Big Wildlife’s clout, countless Indigenous and local communities across the world have been forcibly removed from their lands in the name of Protected Areas, leading to the loss of culture, livelihoods, and identity. Indigenous tribes were removed during the inception of Yellowstone National Park in the United States, Serengeti National Park in Tanzania and Virunga National Park in Rwanda, to name a few.
Hidden Battlefield
https://bluegorillagiving.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/IMG_8662.mov Trumpeting Dixie on their musical horns, a parade of vintage Italian compacts cars drove down Corso Umberto I in Leonforte. People scrambled to the
Our Grant Writing Bears Fruit
Imagine an orchard where every tree bears a different kind of fruit: mango, cherry, peach, pear, lemon, lime. Each fruit must be picked in its
Frustrated with the lack of action, Eric Pittman and Gregg McElroy founded the Canadian Orca Rescue Society to help create positive change. They campaign tirelessly on behalf of Orcas. Education and Public Awareness are pillars of their work. CORS’s inflatable Orcas can be seen at events across the region promoting environmental awareness. Each inflatable Orca is modelled on an individual of the southern resident pods. Life sized inflatable Orcas are a crowd-pleaser at any event CORS attends, and an opportunity for volunteers to share information about Orcas.CORS is committed to finding solutions to the threats to Orca survival. To save the Orcas in the Salish Sea we must halt climate change. The task may seem impossible, but it can be done — one salmon hatchery at a time, one old-growth forest at a time, one Orca Club at a time.
CORS is currently funded by donations raised by volunteers at events, membership, and out of the pockets of Eric Pittman and Gregg McElroy, the society’s founder/directiors. They have contracted Blue Gorilla Giving Consultancy for 15 hours a week to help them create income streams for CORS. We will shortly embark on the process of creating a three-year strategic plan. We are currently seeking grants from foundations and trusts across Canada to help fund our Orca Clubs pilot project. Next August, based on the results of this project, Blue Gorilla will submit an application to BC Gaming to help fund CORS’s roll-out of Orca Clubs to schools across Greater Victoria.
With a joint gift of $25,000, Canadian-American songwriter Neil Young and actress Daryl Hannah – both active environmentalists – have given Mountain Road Forest campaign a much-needed boost. In a written statement accompanying their donation, the couple said, “Saving these ecosystems, sequestrating carbon, providing habitats, filtering water, creating oxygen, rebuilding soil and of course brining peace, joy and relief to those who get to spend time amidst these natural gems—is a crucial first step in effectively responding to the climate crisis.”
The 49-acre Mountain Road Forest, located between Beaver, Elk and Prospect lakes, has remained untouched for 50 years. The family who own the property made sure of it. Its patriarch was an ardent conservationist who believed in the importance of setting habitat aside and protecting it from development and destruction. The result is a vast and verdant natural cathedral. They hope it can remain that way, but economic pressures have forced them to put the property on the market.
“So this beautiful forest is the subject of an active real estate listing and at least one developer is waiting in the wings,” said Katie Blake as she hiked along a rolling path dappled by sunlight in the pristine woodland north of Victoria. Birdsong, sunbursts and wafts of arboreal decay filled the air. “We’ve got until Earth Day to purchase the property.”
As director of Habitat Acquisition Trust (HAT), Katie knows only too well how rarely an opportunity like Mountain Road Forest comes along: to convert a private lot into an urban forest. If HAT can raise $1.4 million by Earth Day, April 22, 2021, the Capital Regional District (CRD) will permanently designate the forest as a park.
Mountain Road Forest is a magnificent example of mature second growth Coastal Douglas-fir forests, along with Garry oak meadow, rock outcrop, and arbutus stands, all of which are some of Canada’s most imperilled ecosystems. The property contains pockets of old growth trees, and as old growth forests disappear, preserving these mature second growth forests will be key to renewing old forests over time. A spring-fed stream that transects the property is part of the headwaters of the Colquitz River system. Species at risk such as Western Screech-Owl and Common Night hawk range on the property. As development pressures on southeast Vancouver Island grow, opportunities to save large areas of these threatened forests are disappearing. This is an important chance to save some of the best of what’s left.
While the forest contains a few simple trails, other human impact, such as invasive species, is minimal. The local community recognizes and cherishes the invaluable ecological and recreational roles this land plays in their lives. Many people walk and tend to the trails. They care for this place in their own way. It is a deeply loved piece of land and the community is rallying behind its protection.
To date, nearly 850 Victoria-area individuals have made donations towards the Mountain Road Forest campaign, totalling a half million dollars. Campaign advocates are hoping Victoria’s businesses may help meet the shortfall. So far the response from businesses has been lacklustre, which is to be expected given the economic downturn. Still, local brands such as Country Grocer and Phillips Brewery have stepped up. Phillips “Benefit Brew” was awarded this year to HAT’s Mountain Road Forest campaign. (Read more) The beer will raise awareness in the community about the threatened forest.
“Although we can still dream,” said campaign fundraiser, Greg Cummings, “at this stage we are unlikely to find 10 business willing to donate $50,000 each, but 100 businesses donating $5,000 each or 500 business donating $1,000 each is still doable.”
The Capital Regional District is prepared to purchase this private property, and has committed $2 million toward the purchase price, but is relying on the public (individuals, businesses, organizations and granting foundations) to make up the difference to demonstrate the viability of this project so that it can proceed.
For media inquiries, please contact:
Katie Blake, Executive Director—Habitat Acquisition Trust
Tel: 250/995-2428 or 250/217-2718 katie@hat.bc.ca / https://www.hat.bc.ca/