Nyungwe

Visitors follow a network of trails that begins at Uwinka, where the first paths were cut in 1987, and can encounter colonies of chimpanzees and Angola colobus monkeys, the latter once numbering up to 400 individuals in a single group. Birdwatchers find more than 300 species, including 30 endemics of the Albertine Rift, while botanists can identify over 1,000 plant species across the forest’s varied habitats. The presence of endemic amphibians, reptiles and mammals adds to the sense of biodiversity that thrives in the watershed between the Congo and Nile basins.

The forest reserve was created by the Belgian colonial administration in 1933 to curb the conversion of forest to pasture, but from 1958 to 1973 it lost over 150 km² to fire, timber extraction and small‑scale farming. By the mid‑1980s surveys recorded colobus troops of unprecedented size, and a buffer‑zone plan was implemented to protect the remaining timber. The 1994 conflict damaged research stations and tourist facilities, yet local staff remained to safeguard the area; reconstruction began in 1995 and the last elephant was killed in 1999. Today the forest’s blend of high‑altitude rainforest and dense primate populations offers a rare opportunity to observe both chimpanzee families and massive colobus troops within the same protected montane ecosystem.