Nyungwe Forest National Park
Nyungwe Forest National Park is the largest mountainous rainforest in Africa and the largest protected rainforest in East Africa covering an area of about 970 Sq. Km at an altitude of 1600m – 2950m. The park is situated south western area of Rwanda along the Albertine Rift (a series of mountain ranges stretching from Mountain Rwenzori of Uganda up to the Lendu Plateau of Congo).
This national park can be reached by both road and air transport and by road transport, it’s about 225km from the capital city.
This national park was established way back in 1933 as a forest reserve and was later on named a national park.
This area is one of Rwanda’s richest places with several natural resources such as water (in the water shed of Congo River and Nile river Basins in the West and East respectively) which are all suitable for human population survival.
It’s covered by thick green forest canopy, with red outlined boundaries and neighbored by Lake Kivu in its north, bordered by Burundi in the South, Lake Kivu and Democratic Republic of Congo in the West
Nyungwe Forest
Nyungwe rainforest national park is a bio diversified habitat with several wildlife (flora and fauna) species.
It is a home to about 13 primates and several animal species like; Chimpanzees, golden monkeys, mangabeys, colobus and vervet monkeys.
It is a home to various bird species and therefore the nest spot for bird watching.
It has about 300 bird species , with 26 species endemic to the Albertine rift valley.
Among its bird species we have; hornbills, blue toraco, paradise-fly catchers, red throated alethe, Ross’s turaco, red-breasted sparrow hawk, and white-headed wood hoopoe.
Nyungwe Rainforest national park is also a renowned place for botany as it holds about 260 plant species with varying types of trees and shrubs.
Nyungwe montane rainforest national park offers a variety of tourist attractions and activities and these include Primates Watching viewing various primates like chimpanzees, monkeys of different types,
Bird watching provided via the different trails viewing various bird species, Mountain climbing and hiking at Bigugu trail which leads to the 2,950 m Bigugu peak, the highest point in Nyungwe national park which is the most hike, and forest canopy nature walk among others.
